Capture the Fox
by DC111
Summary: Eggman has used the power of technology to alter Tails's mind, turning him against everything he once believed in. Sonic and Knuckles hold it to themselves to make things right... but they discover that they may have to kill Tails to do that. OLDFIC
1. Chapter 1: Tails' Memory

**(NOTE, 9/10/11: This story is kind of old, guys. I'll be reworking it at some point, but at the moment, it is not an accurate representation of my writing ability. Go read Survivor's Resolve or something.)**

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**This is my first fanfiction, hope you like it! It has a lot of adventure in it, and it has the main cast of Sonic characters. And if you're a Sonic/Knuckles/Amy/Tails/Eggman/Vector/Charmy/Espio fan, you'll like this story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned above. They are copyright of SEGA. This story was typed by me and belongs to me. If you wish to use it, please tell me.**

**Okay, on with the story!**

"Tails! Move!"

Tails jumped, narrowly avoiding the robot's missile attack. "Phew, that was close!"

"TAILS!" Sonic dove towards Tails and knocked him over, but reached his main goal of getting Tails out of the way of the robot's fire attack. Tails had a nasty knack of noticing the obvious yet not paying any attention to the rest of his surroundings. "What am I gonna do with you?" Sonic looked over at the young fox, who was lying on the ground with a pretty nasty looking gash on his left leg. "You stay here, I'll take care of that bucket of bolts!" With that said, Sonic sped toward the Eggman robot that dared to lay a finger on Tails, the usual smirk on his face. The robot was exceptionally large, but it moved very slow considering it hovered above the ground by using a half-circle shaped disk, not legs. Sonic had thought it pretty stupid of Eggman to make a robot without legs, as anything without legs would have a hard time keeping up with the world's fastest hedgehog.

Sonic jumped on the robot a few more times, destroying laser cannons and missile launchers. He was about to attack again, but suddenly ,came to a halt. The robot held a bomb above his head. You'd think he'd throw it now, right? But the robot just set it down and went around it toward Sonic. He could hear it ticking_. It will probably go off in about twenty seconds, _Sonic thought to himself. With that, he ran at full speed toward the robot and went into a spin dash. He blasted right through its chest, looped around and landed on the ground next to Tails who couldn't really move because of his hurt leg. He grabbed Tails by his right arm and ran, just as the bomb went off. As Sonic looked back over his shoulder, he could see that the field was on fire, but it would soon clear up. It was a good thing there were no people or buildings in the area. Satisfied with defeating yet another of Eggman's robots, he headed back towards Station Square, Tails hunched over his shoulder.

"Hey Sonic, why don't we just go to my workshop? I want to make some repairs and improvements on the Tornado anyway," Tails suggested.

Sonic smiled. He was used to this kind of thing; it was like Tails to often suggest going to the workshop. "Alright, but you'd better repair that leg of yours first."

"Don't worry, I will."

They arrived at Tails's workshop. "So, Tails, what kind of 'repairs and improvements' are you making anyway?"

"Well, for starters I'm gonna install a new engine, and then I'm going to make a new 'mode' for it. I'm gonna make an under water mode so we can go under water with it! Pretty cool, huh?" Tails said happily as he bandaged his leg. Sonic then watched as Tails started welding and screwing. Whenever he was watching Tails make some sort of repairs/installments/adjustments/whatever, he never really paid attention to what he was actually doing. But today he was examining what Tails was doing closely, and realized just how good of a mechanic he really was. Sonic couldn't imagine having to know so much about welding, measuring, calculating, screwing, or anything else related to operating a machine, at Tails's age. He found it amazing that at only age eight, Tails was just about as smart as a forty-year-old scientist. Sonic often wondered how Tails had learned this, especially since he had been with Sonic since the age of four; and Sonic hadn't taught him anything about mechanics. He didn't even know that much about mechanics. Maybe he had learned it as at tot…? But how could a three or four year old learn so much? Sonic had question Tails about this before, but always got the same response: I can't remember.

As Tails worked, the two of them just sort of talked for the next hour. Finally, getting a bit bored of just sitting there talking, Sonic stood up and headed for the door.

"Where ya going?" asked Tails. "I'm almost done."

"I'll be back in a bit, I'm just gonna take a run real quick."

"Alright." Tails watched as his friend raced out the door. _I need a break too, now that I think about it. _Tails thought to himself. "Ah, I got all night, I can do repairs and stuff later." With that, he walked outside in the cool evening air, and simply laid back in the grass. He thought about a lot of things in the few minutes he was out there, but mostly he thought of Sonic. Just like Sonic had been wondering how Tails became such a good mechanic, Tails was equally confused about how Sonic could run so fast. But a bigger question of his was: How the heck does Sonic stay so optimistic all the time—in an aggressive, sad, or even life-threatening situation? He wanted to be like that too, but no matter how hard he tried, it never seemed to work. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind for now, though. Then, he thought about everything that had happened that day. He remembered trying to hit the robot, failing every time. He remembered Sonic pushing him to save his life. He remembered being carried on Sonic's shoulder to safety. But not once did he remember doing anything that helped defeat the robot. "I wish I could help Sonic more. I always feel like I'm in his way, and yet he doesn't seem to have a problem with it."

"What makes you think you don't help me?"

"Wha…!" Tails jumped up. He didn't expect Sonic back so soon. He also hadn't said what he did for anybody to hear. Least of all Sonic.

"What's wrong, Tails? You help me a lot!" Sonic said, laying in the grass next to him.

"I don't know. It just feels like I'm either in your way or I'm in a situation that always has to bring you to my rescue. I just wish I could help you out more, and maybe fight my own battles. I'm not saying your butting in or anything, so don't take it the wrong way. It has nothing to do with what _you're _doing… It's what _I'm_ not doing. I'm not strong enough, and I'm definitely not tough enough to beat another one of those robots."

Tails expected Sonic to say, "Sure you are!" but he didn't.

"That's okay, Tails. You may not be strongest when it comes to fighting, but don't focus on your weakness. You can fly, that's something I can't do no matter what."

"Yeah, but that's about it."

"… And you're smart, too! Especially when it comes to things like machines and computers. That helps out a lot when we're trying to figure something out about one of Eggman's robots. And you're not as bad at fighting as you think, you know. I've seen you do some pretty cool things with those tails of yours."

"Thanks, Sonic," Tails said, looking into Sonic's eyes with a very small smile on his face.

"You just keep up the good work pal. Don't doubt your abilities so much."

"Okay. Thanks Sonic."

"Don't mention it!" Sonic flashed him a thumbs-up, and ran off into the night.

"I owe you so much, Sonic," he said quietly to himself. He stared up at the stars and fell asleep within minutes.

"_NO! Leave it alone! Keep away from that!" Tails yelled at him, close to tears. One of his favorite mechanical toys, that he'd invented himself, was being held by another older fox, who, like everyone else in that area, made fun of Tails for his love of mechanical things and of course, his genetic abnormality, his extra tail. "Please! Give it back!" the twin-tailed fox pleaded._

_Smash_

_"Ah—" The young fox's eyes filled with tears as the bully that was holding him so he couldn't stop the bigger fox from breaking his toy, let go of him. He took his broken item and simply kept walking through the forest. All the sudden, he felt a strong gust of wind, but it only lasted about three seconds. Tails looked up ahead to see what looked a lightning bolt zip down the forest path in front of him. "Wow… What was that?" Tails followed the 'lightning bolt' all the way to the end of the path that let out at a beach. "Wow!" Tails marveled at a beautiful red plane. Standing next to it was a blue hedgehog. Was that the 'lightning bolt' Tails had just seen?_

_Tails was about to go and say hi, but then said quietly to himself: "He looks like a 'cool' kid. 'Cool' kids hang out with other 'cool' kids. Everyone here that's cool thinks I'm a freak. I think I'll just leave him alone."_

_"You talkin' about me?" The hedgehog said, turning around and looking at Tails. "My ears aren't just for looks, you know."_

_Tails quickly covered his mouth and ran in the opposite direction along the beach. The blue hedgehog, however, ran in front of him and blocked him off. Tails stopped so fast he tripped and fell. Some so called 'cool' kids, and even their parents, who were watching in the background, laughed at him. The teenage hedgehog kept advancing towards Tails, and he kept backing up._

_"Relax, little guy. I won't hurt you."_

_That's what they all say, Tails thought. This kind of thing has happened to me before. They all just play nice and then the next day I end up with dirt in my face and fingers pointed._

_All the sudden, Tails simply reached out and grabbed the blue hedgehog's outreached hand and stood up._

_"Are you okay?" the hedgehog asked._

_Tails just moaned and walked away, as people were still staring and laughing at him. Seeing the young fox's cheeks turn pink, the hedgehog again blocked off Tails's path. "Don't worry 'bout them. Don't worry about what they think. It doesn't matter. They're not cool. The cool people are the ones who will help you up when you fall!" he said with a wink._

_From then on Tails new that he was different. He wasn't like all the other people here. Slowly Tails's embarrassed look went away._

_"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."_

_"I—I'm Miles Prower. But my friends call… er… you can call me Tails."_

_"You don't seem to be a chatty type."_

_"Well… I sort of get made fun of a lot… I like to build stuff, even my toys I built, so they all make fun of me. But the biggest reason is because I have two tails. They all call me a loser and a freak. I'm sorry if I seemed nosy Sir, but you were so fast. I wanted to see if I could keep up with you long enough to see what you looked like."_

_"Hey, we're cool. Just call me Sonic though, alright? You don't need to call me Sir or Mister or anything. I'm not royalty, here."_

_"Yeah. Okay. Hey, so do you wanna be friends?"_

_"You bet!"  
"Hey Sonic, thanks for being so nice to me."_

_"You don't have to thank me, Tails. You deserve to be treated like everybody else."_

"Wow. That dream seemed so real. Everything was exactly as I remember it. Man, I really _do _owe Sonic. He's done so much for me. If it weren't for him, I'd still be a homeless wimp wandering around in that forest. I have so many more friends now, too. And the least I can do is actually put some effort into helping my hero!"

The time to prove himself to Sonic couldn't have been better, for just then, Amy came racing up to Tails. "Help! They're gonna hurt Sonic! You HAVE to fly to Angel Island now! We need Knuckles's help!"

"Where is he?"

"He's fighting a robot!"

"So, what's new with that?"

"Well, first off, they're on a big dock right near the ocean, and to make matters worse—" but that was enough for Tails. He cut her off and thought to himself.

"_You have to help Sonic… Think… _I got it!"

"What?"

"Amy! Listen to me! Go make sure Sonic's okay, but don't get yourself into any trouble. We don't have enough time to get Knuckles. I know he's a good swimmer an' all, but Sonic could be drowning by then. But we don't have any more time to waste."

With that, Tails twisted his namesakes and flew towards his workshop as fast as he could. "_I'm glad I made those improvements last night…"_

Meanwhile, Amy was running as fast as her legs could carry her (which isn't saying much) towards the edge of Station Square, where Sonic and Eggman's new waterproof robot, E-202 Hydro, were fighting. Hydro was about a foot taller than Sonic, and had arms, legs, and a body. Pretty typical.

"Muahaha! E-202 will end Sonic for good!" Came the familiar voice of a fat, egg-shaped man (three guesses who). "Use your ice attack and freeze that hedgehog!"

E-202 fired a special type of water at Sonic that was so cold it would freeze the second it made contact with something. Naturally, Eggman once more gave himself away by telling the robot out loud what to do, and Sonic heard it. He dodged the ice attacks easy. Then he charged up and made a straight beeline for the robot, making a clean hole right through its center.

"Another day, another failure, Eggman!" Sonic said insultingly.

However, Eggman's eyes were off to the left, staring at something. Sonic couldn't quite figure out what it was he was staring at. He was looking that way and didn't see anything. Unbeknownst to Sonic, though, Eggman had thrown a Chaos Emerald towards his robot while Sonic was looking the other way. It had been a trap so Eggman could use the emerald to keep Hydro alive.

Of course, Sonic didn't discover this until it was too late. The robot had froze Sonic with another ice attack.

"SOOONNNNIIIIICC!" Tails came racing toward them at top speed in the Tornado. He launched a power ring from the cockpit and it hit Sonic right in the chest. Sonic absorbed the power of the ring, and, almost effortlessly, broke through the ice.

"Hahaha… NOW SHOW HIM YOUR BIG SURPRISE, HYDRO!"

Hydro launched a net over Sonic, and extended its arm with a spring, hitting Sonic hard across the face, knocking him into the water.

Amy gasped. "SONICCCCC!"

"Don't worry Amy, I was ready for this! Tornado Transformation! Initiate Submarine mode, now!" The Tornado changed form a bit, but still looked more like a plane than a submarine. But the special 'repairs and improvements' Tails had added last night made the plane waterproof, and also put a window over the seat where Tails was sitting. To top it all off, there were emergency oxygen tanks available just incase they were needed. "YES! It worked! Here I come, Sonic!" Tails did a 270-degree loop in the air and dove down into the water.

**Well, what do you think? Please tell me if you liked it or not by submitting a review.**


	2. Chapter 2: Help From Knuckles

All the sudden, Tails felt a bang on the side of the sub. "What the… Uh-oh. I forgot Hydro was water proof!" Tails wanted to get the robot off his back, but he couldn't waste time. Sonic was at the bottom of the ocean right now, and it had already been probably about two minutes. Hopefully Sonic could hold his breath for a long time. Tails did the best he could to hold back the robot. He fired to homing missiles at it. They were slow in water, but they would at least keep Hydro on the run for a few minutes. _This thing is slow now because that stupid robot banged it up! I could get out and swim to the bottom myself with an oxygen tank, and if I propelled my tails I could get down there real fast. But… The robot might hurt me… _Tails sighed in frustration and in fear. _I can't be like this. I told myself, I'd start helping Sonic as much as I possibly could! I'm not scared…… _"I'M NOT SCARED!" Tails shouted at the top of his lungs. He grabbed the oxygen tank, opened the window shield, and dove toward the bottom of the sea. Before long, he saw Sonic. He didn't appear to be choking or anything. No bubbles ascended from his mouth. Tails felt a jolt in his stomach.

"Where _are _they?" Amy shouted. "Oh, that's it! You're gonna pay for this!" She said, looking up at Eggman in his little round hovercraft. She jumped with all her might, pulled out the piko-piko hammer and swung.

"Damn you…" Eggman said under his breath. "AHHHHHHH!"

Amy watched as Eggman flew like a rocket. "Hmph!" Then she looked at her watch. "They've been down there for five minutes. That can't be good…"

Tails ascended out of the water with a huge splash, holding Sonic by his hands. He appeared very tense, and almost looked like he was going to cry. He quickly laid Sonic down on the dock. "Tails! And Sonic…" Amy said quietly. He wasn't breathing. "No… Please… Not Sonic…" Amy said, holding back her tears.

E-202 burst out of the water. "You monster!" Tails yelled, enraged. He took flight and charged towards E-202. It turned into a sky battle. Tails was dodging all the attacks so far, but then again, so was Hydro.

At the same time, Amy was pressing on Sonic's stomach, trying to get him to cough up some water. To her surprise, it worked! Sonic sat up and choked for about two whole minutes. "SONIC!" Amy was ecstatic.

"Whoa… That's why I don't like water…"

"We all know that Sonic, but Tails is up there fighting Hydro all by himself! What do we do?"

"To be honest I'm not sure! I don't know about you, but I can't fly! I think we ought to leave this one to Tails. But I know something that may help him."

"What?"

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic yelled just as he whipped Hydro good with one of his tails. "I told you you do some pretty cool things with those tails of yours!" Sonic winked at him. "You can do it, buddy!"

"Sonic…" Tails said quietly, his heart overjoyed. "I thought we lost you…!"

"You didn't, obviously. But pay attention before that robot gets its senses back."

Too late. The robot had striked Tails but good. He began falling, but to Sonic's advantage, he was headed toward the sand on the beach. "I'm coming!" Sonic dove for Tails and caught him, scraping his elbows in the process. "You alright lil' bud?"

"I… think so… yeah… I'm ok. Sorry, just sorta lost it there. Sonic, I can't do this alone! I'm trying so hard to make you proud of me Sonic but it never seems to work."

"Tails, you don't know how much more respect I have for you now because of what you just did. You risked your life to pull me out of the water, and while I was unconscious, you tried to fight that robot yourself. It means a lot to me just to know you care enough to do that.

"Really Sonic?" Tails asked slowly.

"Really. Now let's go finish what we started. You ready for this Tails?"

"No worries!"

"Now that's what I like to hear!"

With that, Sonic grabbed Tails's legs and they flew into the air. "Have a plan, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Yep! Fly up above the robot and we'll take it from there."

Tails was hesitant; he didn't quite get it. But he trusted Sonic. Up he went.

"Now," Sonic said, reaching one hand up towards Tails. He grabbed it, and then grabbed Sonic's other hand. "Throw me at Hydro-head here as hard as you can."

"But won't you fall into the water?"

"I'll be okay. Don't worry."

"Alright…"

"Now, ready?"

"Whenever you are!"

"Three…"

"Two…"

"ONE!"

BOOM. Sonic started spin dashing. Tails had aimed him perfectly at the robot! In less than two seconds after he'd been thrown, Sonic blasted through the robot, grabbing its Chaos Emerald in the process.

"Go Sonic!" Tails and Amy yelled in unison.

"YEAH!" Sonic yelled triumphantly. He made a perfect landing in the sand.

"Sonic, you did it!" said Tails, landing beside him.

"Hey, couldn't have done it if you hadn't helped me!"

"Excuse me, but I deserve SOME credit!" Amy said impatiently. "I DID get that Egghead out of here for you!"

"Yeah, you're right." Sonic said.

"We all did it," said Tails.

"Well, guys, that's what teamwork is all about!"

"Now…" said Tails.

"What?"

"The Tornado's still down there. I won't be able to get it back up, it's really damaged 'cause of that bot. What should I do?"

"I don't think there's much we can do for it right now," Sonic said, "but don't you worry. We'll figure something out soon."

"Okay. Let's head back to my place, I guess," said Tails, starting towards his workshop. Sonic followed.

Amy ran after them. "Wait, you guys! What about Eggman? He's probably looking for more Chaos Emeralds right now!"

"Good point!" Sonic said, stopping. "Guess we'd better find a way to get the Tornado out of there."

"Wait, Sonic," said Tails. "I think we're going to need some help from someone who can use their _hands _to get that thing off the sea bottom. It got to much damage, there's no way I could pilot it back up here."

"Knuckles…"

"So, you're asking me to get off my island and risk the Master Emerald being stolen just to move a plane?" Knuckles asked, dumbfounded.

"Well," Tails said shyly, "I'm not strong enough to move it…"

"Sorry, but I'm busy. There have been lots of people around this island lately. Too much for me to feel comfortable. If I leave, the Master Emerald will be gone when I come back."

"But Knuckles—"

"NO. It's not going to happen, at least not now. Just drop it."

Tails groaned, but knew better than to argue with Knuckles. He walked away with his two tails dragging on the ground.

The next day, he flew back to Angel Island, this time with Sonic holding on to his feet.

"Brought your hero to fight for you, I see." Knuckles said impatiently.

"It was my idea, not his," Sonic said.

"I could have guessed that," Knuckles muttered under his breath.

"Look, this is his favorite plane. But more important is the fact that Eggman is back, and he's up to something. We're gonna go after him and find out what. Look, we're buds, can't you do us a favor? I'll watch the Emerald for ya, just help us!"

"You're the LAST person I'd let watch this! And it's my duty to guard it, not yours! And we're not buds!"

"Whoa, boy, I'm not trying to pick a fight. You know I could protect the Master Emerald, I'm good at fighting, I'd get any intruders outta here. In fact, I could probably do it better than you could…"

"Shut up, smart one! I'm not leaving and that's final! Now get off my island, or I'll make you!" Knuckles yelled. Sonic was used to this, and had been expecting it since he agreed to come with Tails to Angel Island to convince Knuckles to help them. He may not have an IQ of 300 or be a mechanic, but he was pretty observant. He knew just how to get on Knuckles's nerves to the point where he'd give up. He knew just how to fool Knuckles.

Sonic just stood there calmly and said, "I'd like to see you try, Knuckles-ol'-pal!"

"Sonic…" Tails said quietly.

"WELL JUST WATCH ME THEN!" Knuckles yelled. He raced towards Sonic and fired a punch, but Sonic simply stepped off to the side. Knuckles's momentum made him fall on the ground.

"What's the matter? Don't know how to walk yet?" said Sonic as he looked down at Knuckles. "Come on, Knuckles, try and catch me!" Sonic began zipping around the island at speeds that made him look like a bullet. He knew he was pushing the limits. Even Sonic knew that Knuckles was dangerous when he wanted to be, and he quickly discovered that this was one of those times as he was suddenly stopped by a sharp pain in his left shoulder. He clutched it and fell to one knee. Knuckles had thrown one of his shovel claws at him, and to his surprise, it didn't miss. Sonic now had a huge gash on his shoulder, oozing blood all down his arm.

"Caught you!" Knuckles said.

Although he was in pain, the usual smirk hadn't left Sonic's face. "Sure, Knuckster, but that's not enough to slow me down." Knuckles was surprised at Sonic's behavior. He knew his own strength, and he knew that one strike like that could bring just about anybody down pretty quickly. Anyone who could maintain such a relaxed and cocky attitude in the midst of considerable pain deserved at least a little respect.

Of course, not letting Sonic know he was thinking this, Knuckles simply muttered, "Showoff!" under his breath.

Sonic stood up, dashed up the alter, and landed right on top of the Master Emerald. "Now," Sonic said, "would you rather risk the Master Emerald being stolen, or have it shattered to pieces?" Of course, Sonic wouldn't really destroy the Master Emerald. But Knuckles didn't know that. He had to admit, when Sonic wanted something done, he sure was stubborn about it.

"Neither!" Knuckles yelled furiously. He charged towards Sonic again.

"Hmph. Have it your way, then!" That said, Sonic jumped up in the air very high, began a spin dash, and charged towards the big green Emerald.

"No!" Knuckles yelled.

Sonic curved his spin dash and landed on the ground next to the Emerald.

"I knew you'd come to your senses!"

"Tails, c'mon! If we're getting your plane, we're doing it now. Sonic, if anything happens to the Master Emerald—"

"I'll let you take a couple whacks at me, okay?"

"Oh, it'll be more than a couple, 'buddy'." With that, Tails flew off the island with Knuckles holding his ankles and made his way towards the city, with Sonic sitting near the Master Emerald.

"Time to go for a run!" Sonic raced off into the forest behind the Master Emerald's alter. He hadn't been in that area in a while. Something new was something Sonic looked forward to. "Wow, it's like a maze here. I barely remember it. This place looks so much like the place where I met Tails….

"_Well, I'd better get going… Hey, is that fox back there following me? He's watching me." Sonic turned around. The fox ran. Sonic ran in front of the fox, who fell over on the ground. People started laughing. "I won't hurt you." The fox took his hand. "I'm Sonic. Sonic the hedgehog."_

"_I'm—I'm Miles Prower. You can call me Tails though."_

It was then that Sonic remembered what a horrible life Tails must have had before they met. He was an orphan, he was a child, everyone made fun of him… Where did he get food? That little fox must've really had a big will to live, either that, or he was just hoping for something good to happen one day. _And it did… _Sonic thought to himself. He never realized just how much Tails really needed him that day until now. And Tails still needed him. Sonic knew well know how much Tails adored him. Lost in thought about what Tails's life had been like before they'd met (and obviously not paying attention to his surroundings) he promptly ran straight into a tree.

Meanwhile, Tails and Knuckles were finally at the dock.

"Whaddaya want me to do now?" Knuckles asked irritably.

"Here. Take this," Tails handed him an oxygen tank and one on himself. After getting them on, they went under. "I'm gonna need you to help me lift this thing back up to the surface. If I can at least fix it enough to get the engine to turn on, it may make it seem a little less heavy since it'll be propelling itself upward.

"Okay, but this better not take long! I'll bet Sonic's not even near the Master Emerald right now, knowing him."

"Don't worry Knuckles, Sonic knows what he's doing."

That was contrary to Knuckles's belief. "Sure, he does," Knuckles said, his voice containing just a hint of sarcasm.

With Knuckles strength and Tails's mechanical know-how, they managed to get the engine to turn on and were able to move it upward. With his feet kicking, Knuckles pushed the broken down plane higher and higher. Tails was trying to help, but might as well have swam next to the echidna to keep him company; the strength in Tails's arms wasn't much.

"Are we almost there, Tails? We're running low on oxygen."

"Don't worry Knuckles, I can see the dock!"

"Good. Let's get this thing out of here so I can go back to—"

"Angel Island, I know! As soon as we get this thing on land, I can take it from there. I'll be able to repair it. We're coming close now, so let's start pushing it on the sand.

"Just let me do it, you just go wait on the sand and dry your tails off. You're not strong enough."

"Okay," Tails said sadly. For his whole life, nothing could hurt him more than an insult or anything close too it. It always reminded him of being on that miserable island, the island that had once been his home. Of course, if it was Eggman who was insulting him, that was okay because he was used to it, not to mention they were enemies. An enemy of Sonic's was an enemy of Tails's. But for a friend to insult him hurt his feelings. He never let anyone know this, though.

"Hm… Well, I said I'd guard this for Knuckles, so that's what I have to do. Man, how can he sit around a boring ol' rock for days on end? Doesn't he ever get bored? Ah, forget it. I'm not sitting around here waiting for ol' Knuckster to get back. I'm going for a run, and I'll take the Master Emerald with me!" Sonic put his hands under the Emerald and heaved. He was surprised to feel it come right off the ground. "Wow, lighter than it looks, eh? Well, I'm not complaining about it!"

Without further ado, Sonic dashed off into the forest, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake.

Just then, Knuckles returned to the island (as if you didn't see that coming).

"THE MASTER EMERALD'S GONE! Sonic…"

(In the forest) "Hey, I think I heard something. A scream? What the…" Sonic put his hand to his ear and listened. _Sonic, I oughta… You were supposed to guard it! AHHH! YOU LITTLE PIECE O' SH—"_

"Whoa, somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed! Guess I'd better get back there before he explodes… On second thought…" Sonic smirked at his little joke and headed back toward the alter.

"Hiya, Knuckles," Sonic said as he came to a halt in front of Knuckles, holding the Master Emerald above his head. "Had a little problem, so I took it and ran off. Now I'm back, so here's your Emerald."

Knowing Tails wasn't here, and knowing that he couldn't fly, Sonic ran off and found an open spot in the forest and laid down. "Tails'll be here soon with the Tornado and I can get off of here. If not, I guess I'll just wait… After all, the Tornado was in pretty bad shape."

After a while of laying there, it started to get dark. Suddenly, Sonic saw something small and white falling straight toward him, and fast. "Whoa!" Sonic rolled away just as the object struck the ground, sending dirt flying everywhere. Sonic let all the dirt and dust clear, and then looked over at the object. "A Chaos Emerald! What a nice find!" Sonic took it and began wondering what happened to the other chaos emerald that he had gotten when he destroyed E-202, Hydro. "Oh yeah, it was in the Tornado. I wonder if it still is? I sure hope so because if it's not, that means it's probably under water right now. Nah, I'll bet Tails got it." Sonic continued looking at the Emerald. _Where'd it come from? It just fell out of the sky… but it had to have fallen from something. Me and Tails should take the Tornado up there once he fixes it. I want some answers now, I'm curious. But I still have to wait for Tails to come so he can fly me off this island… Ugh, I wish I could get off of here now! _

Unexpectedly, Sonic disappeared in a flash of bright orange light.


	3. Chapter 3: A Run in with Eggman

**He reappeared outside of Tails's workshop. As he expected, Tails was inside, repairing his plane. "Hiya Tails, what's up?"**

**"Sonic? How'd you get off the island?"**

**"You really want to know?**

**"Um, yeah."**

**Sonic took out the Chaos Emerald.**

**"Wow! Where'd that come from?"**

**"To be honest, I'm not really sure."**

**"What do you mean?"**

**"Well, I was just laying in the forest and it fell out of the sky. It had to have come from somewhere. I have a feeling there's something up there that we should know about."**

**"Like what?"**

**"Well, for one thing, Eggman's been around a lot. I can tell he's looking for more Chaos Emeralds."**

**"So you're saying he's got something up there?"**

**"I think so."**

**"But Sonic, what do you think he wants the Chaos Emeralds for?"**

**"I don't know Tails, but usually he somehow ends up telling us. You know, '_I'm gonna build the Eggman Empire so you better not get in my way!' _That type of thing. But he hasn't given us any warnings. I really think he doesn't want us in his way this time. But that won't stop this hedgehog!"**

**"Right! Well, I'm gonna keep working on the Tornado, alright?"**

**"No prob Tails. See ya later."**

**"See ya! Oh, and if you want to find out where that Chaos Emerald fell from tomorrow, I should have this thing fixed. Meet me over here around eleven o'clock or so, and we'll go together!"**

**"Sounds good!"**

**Sonic left the workshop and fell asleep outside, as usual. He liked sleeping outside. The night seemed to last longer, not to mention it was more peaceful, assuming it didn't rain. That was a good thing though, as he would be better prepared if he wasn't that tired in the morning. **

**He awoke the next morning to a beautiful sunrise. He looked behind him at Tails's workshop. It would've been something new if they actually got to take off in the Tornado right now as they had planned, but things never seemed to go as planned. Sonic went inside the small workshop. "Hey Tails, ready to shove off?" Not seeing the young fox, Sonic looked everywhere in the workshop. That was when he realized that the Tornado was gone, too! "He must have gone somewhere I guess. He wouldn't have gone to find Eggman or anything without me, would he?" **

"**I'm gonna find Eggman, Sonic! I just know I can do this alone," Tails said to himself. He looked below him. "Wow, I've gotten really high already! I hope I did everything right when I repaired this thing." Tails kept searching what he could see of the land. There was the forest Sonic had been in! That's where the Emerald had fallen, right? Tails kept going. Whatever was up here, he had to be close. Suddenly he saw bullets come shooting towards him. "Ahhh! Where'd they come from!" He avoided the bullets by swerving the Tornado to the right. Now missiles were heading towards him. They were following him! "I think I found what I was looking for!" he said. That was when he spotted Eggman, in his—newly designed hovercraft? It was bigger now, and it had spikes sticking out from the sides.**

"**I was expecting you'd bring the hedgehog with you," Eggman said. "How do you like my hovercraft? It's pretty amazing, eh? Guess what? It has more weapons now, too! Those missiles won't stop following you and they're made from indestructable steal! Let's you try and shake those off."**

**Tails launched his own missiles from the Tornado. They hit Eggman's, but only slowed them down. **

"**Nice try, fox boy!"**

"**Oh yeah?" Tails flew his plane right behind Eggman's hovercraft, and launched a missile at him. Having no time to move, the missile hit Eggman and his whole machine froze. The homing missiles were still heading for Tails, but now that Eggman was in front of him, they hit him instead! Eggman unfroze and his machine began to slowly fall, leaving a trail of smoke. "Hah! Thanks for the Chaos Emerald you gave us last night!" Tails yelled after Eggman. He flew the Tornado higher and saw something he didn't expect. As the fog cleared up above him, Tails saw hundreds of huge aircrafts, loaded with robots and weapons. So _that _was where the Chaos Emerald had come from…**

"**I'd better get out of here… I can't do this alone!" That said, Tails turned the Tornado around and headed back down.**

**Meanwhile, Sonic was just walking around the workshop looking at some of Tails's little inventions while he waited for Tails to come back. He'd go look for him, but it wasn't like there was another plane around here he could use. Suddenly, he heard a bang outside the workshop. "What if that was the Tornado?" Sonic ran out, only to see a rather large hole in the ground. There was an area below it, too. It wasn't just a hole that lead to more ground. In fact, it looked like a base… "I wonder whose base that is?" Sonic asked himself, pretending like he didn't know. He jumped down through the hole. It wasn't that big, at least not what he'd expected. "Huh?"**

"**No Sonic, it's not a base." Eggman said, getting out of his now damaged hovercraft. "All I did here was build this!" Eggman said as he pressed a button. Out came one of the biggest robots Sonic had ever seen. It looked like a metallic and somewhat better-looking version of Eggman. Typical, Sonic thought to himself, the Doctor can't do anything without being full of himself. "Say hello to E—"**

"**I don't need to hear it!" Sonic yelled, cutting him off, "What did you do to Tails?"**

"**Why are you accusing me? That little brat came looking for me, but I caught him on radar before he could get up to my air base. As usual, we had a fight with our machines and…"**

"…**And Tails beat you! Serves you right! But where is he?" Sonic said quietly, with a threatening hint in his voice. He was prepared to hurt anybody who did anything bad with his best bud.**

"**How should I know?"**

**The robot started attacking Sonic. Caught off guard, Sonic jumped. He dodged the first couple of attacks, as usual. The robot then switched weapons, locking onto Sonic with lasers. Missiles came towards Sonic from both sides. With nowhere to go, Sonic was hit by both missles and the impact threw him against the wall. The robot grabbed Sonic with its hand and dropped him on the ground. He picked up his foot and slammed it on top of the nearly unconscious hedgehog.**

**Sonic screamed. He couldn't move. The only thing that wasn't under the robot's foot was one of his legs. A tentacle-like arm came out from the robot's heal and delivered a strong hit to Sonic's leg, breaking it. Then came an even harder crunch with its foot, pushing the quills on Sonic's back right into his back, cutting him. Finally, the robot took his foot off Sonic and a final blow to the head with its hand struck him so hard against the wall that the wall cracked, leaving Sonic unconscious. He slid down the wall and hit the ground, leaving a smear of blood on the wall. The robot left the area, going back to where it came from. Eggman left too, heading back through the 'hole in the ground' and towards his air base.**

**Tails landed smoothly in front of his workshop, got out, and gasped. "That hole in the ground wasn't there when I left." Tails cautiously walked over to the hole in the ground and looked in it. "Whoa, Sonic! What happened to him?" Tails jumped in the hole and spun his two tails slowly as he flew down toward Sonic. "Sonic…?" All the sudden Tails heard a slam behind him. He jerked around fast, only to see a huge robot land in front of him out of nowhere. "You did this to Sonic!" But Tails had no time to move. The robot sent a hand crashing down on Tails, crushing him against the ground like a pancake. "Ah! Sonic!"**

"**What…" Sonic heard the commotion and awoke from his unconsciousness. "Oh, hi Tails… Tails! Oh no!" Sonic quickly got up and gritted his teeth in pain. "My leg… Ouch..." Sonic fought it though, and he ran as fast as he could with his injury. He jumped and went into a spin dash toward the hand that was pinning Tails to the ground. He hit it but had no success and landed on the ground. Sonic flinched from landing on his leg. He couldn't beat the robot, but he could still get Tails out of there. He went towards Tails as fast as he could and jammed his way under the robot's hand, reaching for the fox's hand. "Grab my hand!" After a few more seconds of struggling, Tails grabbed Sonic's hand. Sonic pulled Tails in front of him and then pushed him toward the edge of the robot's hand. "Can you squeeze your way out of here from where you are?"**

"**I think so!" Tails said, almost screaming it. He was in pain from being under the robot's hand, not to mention Sonic had no choice but to drag him between the robot and the ground to get him far enough so that he could get out. With a lot of groaning and about five more minutes of struggling, Tails got himself out. **

"**Get out of here, now!" Sonic said to Tails.**

"**What? I'm not going to leave you!"**

"**Just go! Don't worry about me."**

**Tails backed away out of the robot's reach, but refused to go anywhere. He couldn't believe what was happening. He was watching Sonic die right in front of him. Sonic was still giving a tried and true effort though. He never gave a fight anything less than his best. It was no use though. He couldn't get out. Even Sonic's strength had to have a limit somewhere, and this was it. Just as he was managing to get himself out from under the robot when he collapsed. He had used every ounce of strength he had. Tails just stood there watching in horror. Then he noticed a white sparkle out of the corner of his eye. "The Chaos Emerald! Sonic must have dropped it!" Without hesitation, Tails ran toward the Emerald. **

**The robot, spotting his movement, locked onto Tails and sent missiles firing toward him. Tails, determined to get the Emerald, zigzagged out of the way, managing to avoid the first few. The robot sent out one last missile and it hit Tails's foot, sending him tumbling on the ground. When he came to a stop, he was right in front of the Emerald. He snatched it and stood up. "Sonic!" he yelled. He thrust the Emerald at Sonic. It hit the ground, bounced a few times, slid under the robot's hand and came to a stop when it hit Sonic's arm. It began to glow, as did Sonic. As he gained power from the Emerald, Sonic opened his eyes in a flash. He put his hands against the ground below him, and began pushing up.**

"**Wow," Tails said slowly as he watched in awe. With teeth gritted and eyes squeezed shut tight, Sonic was pushing himself up, creating a gap between him and the ground so that he had room to maneuver. This was his chance, and he took advantage of it. By now, Sonic was standing up, with his hands pushing against the robot's hand with all the force he had. Sonic dashed out from under the robot's hand as he jerked his hands back down to his sides, and came to a halt in front of Tails, who was staring at Sonic in amazement. The power from the Emerald wore off, and the glow around Sonic disappeared. Sonic put his hand on Tails's shoulder.**

"**Thank you, Tails," he said gently.**

"**Sonic! I'm so sorry! If I wouldn't have come down here this wouldn't have happened. Nothing I do works right! I should have tried to help you when you were trapped under that robot! Sonic—"**

**Sonic began to wonder why Tails always seemed sorry for everything. He was about to question this, but decided against it. "Whoa, calm down Tails! If you wouldn't have tossed me that Emerald I wouldn't have been able to get out of there."**

"**But—"**

"**And if you wouldn't have come down here, I'd still be against the wall like a log, and the robot would've come back out to attack me again. That's why I'm thanking you."**

**Tails had tears in his eyes. This whole situation had given him quite a scare. He swallowed a lump in his throat and realized that he really _had _done something to help Sonic. "You're welcome," He said quietly. The two friends smiled at each other for a moment, and then Sonic turned and ran toward the robot. **

"**You may have broken my leg, but I won't let that stop me!" Sonic jumped so high that Tails had to hang his head back a little to look up. He slammed his good leg into the fifty-foot tall robot's head, and repelled himself backwards off it as the robot began falling backwards, and then started spin dashing full speed at the robot. It exploded on contact. Two Chaos Emeralds went sailing into the air and Sonic caught them before hitting the ground. So that was why that robot was so powerful. Without another word, Tails grabbed Sonic and flew the two of them out of the giant base-like room and landed on the ground next to the hole.**


	4. Chapter 4: The Lost Chaos Emerald

**It was nighttime now. This had taken a lot longer than it felt like. As Tails released Sonic and let himself land on the ground, he fell to his knees. He was scared, and at the same time, relieved. Sonic was panting and there was sweat dripping from both of their faces. "That was a close one! Tails?"**

**Sonic limped over to his fox friend. He was shaking and his head was hanging down. For a moment, Sonic just stood there, and Tails kept panting. He looked up slowly at Sonic, tears in his eyes. "Oh Sonic! I thought you were—you were—" Tails stopped and threw his face into his hands. "First when I came down there I saw you against the wall and there was blood all over and then when you woke up and saw me you got me out, Sonic why did you save me? When you were under the robot's hand after saving me I thought he'd killed you and I felt like screaming Sonic I was so scared the robot would kill you then attack me again…" Sonic put a hand over Tails mouth and ended his long run-on sentence.**

"**It's okay pal, it's all over now," Sonic said. "And I've gotten hurt before, I thought you were used to that by now."**

"**I've never seen you in so much pain or so close to dying! Sonic, there was blood everywhere and now you're leg's broke and it's still bleeding!"**

"**I'm okay." Sonic said gently. "Don't worry Tails, it'll be alright now."**

**Without another word Tails buried his face in Sonic's chest and cried. He was still shaking from fear. They both had made a narrow escape, and it had given Tails quite a scare. Sonic was caught by surprise at Tails movement, but put his arm around him all the same. After about five minutes Tails calmed down a bit and backed away from Sonic, looking at the soaked fur on his chest. "Sorry."**

"**Hey, don't worry about it." If Sonic had to admit the truth, he was slightly annoyed at Tails's overreaction, but he felt sorry for the fox more than anything.**

**Tails grabbed Sonic's hand and flew into the air back toward the workshop so that Sonic didn't have to walk. They went in and Tails led Sonic to a separate room in the back—Tails's room. In it he had a refrigerator, a couch, a television, and of course, a bed. Sonic gratefully climbed in and laid down. "Ah… This feels good after a long day."**

"**What about your leg? It's not going to repair itself on its own, and I know you want to run again."**

"**Okay, hospital. First thing in the morning."**

"**Actually, I think I may be able to fix it, if I can just take a good look at it, estimate the mass of your bones, see where you broke it and make a few adjustments. I'll just have to move your femur back into place because I can tell that's broken for one thing, and the knee cap may have a slight fracture as well—"**

"**My language please!"**

"**Hehe, sorry, I know I can sound geeky sometimes. I'm just saying that as long as it doesn't require surgery, I should be able to fix it myself with some adjustments just using my hands.**

"**Okay, as long as I'm not getting cut open here…"**

"**If it was that serious, I'd have taken you to the hospital. I may be smart but I'm no surgeon."**

**Before the night was over, Sonic's leg was (painfully) repaired and Sonic was wrapped up in a cast, sleeping on Tails's bed. Tails took the couch for the night, not wanting to wake him up.**

"**Ouch!" Sonic woke up the next morning to something landing on his leg—his injured one.**

"**Sorry Sonic. I didn't mean to drop it," Tails said immediately. **

"**Huh? What do you have one of the Chaos Emeralds over here for?" Sonic said, looking at the Emerald next to his legs. Tails picked it up.**

"**I just remembered that Chaos Emeralds have healing powers. If we use this—I'm not sure—but we may be able to mend your leg completely."**

"**Really? That would be great! I'm the last person that would want to sit around for six weeks waiting for a broken leg to heal." Sonic took the Emerald and closed his hand over it, looking at the Emerald and then at his leg. "Hey, we have three, don't we?"**

**Tails handed Sonic the other two Chaos Emeralds; the ones they had found when the robot blew up. "Yep. We'd have four if the other one wasn't still under the water from when we beat Hydro."**

**Sonic took one of the Chaos Emeralds Tails was offering him. "Maybe two will do the trick." Sonic concentrated on the Chaos Emeralds and a green glow surrounded him. It stung quite a bit, but Sonic kept his eyes on his leg as the dirt and bruises disappeared. "Wow! I knew they could heal people, but you don't know how amazing it is until it actually happens to you!"**

"**Cool! So you feel better now?"**

"**Yeah, you bet! But as much as I hate to say it, we'd better take the Tornado and get that fourth Chaos Emerald out of the water. It's right out front isn't it?"**

**They walked outside. Tails stepped back. "Oh no, it's storming! What a nightmare!"**

**"I guess we're both going to have to deal with something we're scared of."**

**Sonic was scared of water and Tails was scared of thunderstorms. Perfect day to go out and look for a Chaos Emerald."**

**"Let's do it!" Sonic said, the trademark smirk on his face.**

**"Alright…"**

**They boarded the Tornado and buckled themselves in. "We can do it," said Tails. _I can do anything as long as I got Sonic helping me!_**

**They both felt a little nervous about their unfortunate situation, but kept heading toward the ocean. "Tornado Transformation, initiate submarine mode now!" Tails pressed a button as they splashed into the water, and a window came up over Sonic and Tails, keeping them from getting wet (not to mention drowning). Tails heard Sonic take a deep breath.**

**"Are you sure you want to come? I can leave you on the dock you know…"**

**"I'm not going to leave you to do this alone just because I'm scared of something," Sonic said rather calmly for being under water. He hardly ever actually said he was scared of water.**

**"Just relax and help me look for the Emerald. We'll be outta here in no time!"**

**"Right."**

**Suddenly missiles splashed through the water and came rushing toward the Tornado. **

**"I had a feeling Eggman would show up!" Sonic said.**

**"Hahaha!" Came Eggman's laugh behind them as he came under water in his upgraded hovercraft—it had a cover over it now so Eggman could breathe. "Thought you could grab another Emerald without me knowing about it, eh?"**

**"Tails, if you truly think you don't help me, I'm telling you now how much I need your help." Sonic said. "You need to hold off Eggman. I'm getting that Emerald."**

**"Sonic, no! We have no oxygen tanks left!"**

**"I know. I'll be okay, though, as long as Egghead can't reach me. Being under water will be bad enough. You can do it Tails!"**

**That said, Sonic opened the window shield, dashed out, and closed it as fast as he could. A little water had flooded inside, but not enough to put Tails in any danger. With his breath held, Sonic looked down at the Emerald. He couldn't run—he wasn't even touching the ground yet. So he let go of the Tornado and…**

**"No way, Sonic's swimmin'!" Tails said as he watched Sonic. "He's trying to get that Emerald…" Tails faced Eggman. "…an' I won't let you stop him."**

**Tails rammed the Tornado into Eggman, sending him plummeting towards the sea bottom. Eggman, though, regained control of the hovercraft and zapped lasers toward Tails. Tails dodged them, and looked at Sonic. He was swimming toward the Tornado for dear life, with the Chaos Emerald in his hand. Tails wouldn't let Sonic down again. Not now, not ever. He pressed an emergency button and cried, "FIRE!" and released his entire arsenal of lasers, missiles, bullets, and anything else he had at Eggman. The force blew him out of the water, and in the distance an explosion was heard. Tails then pressed another button as he turned the sub towards Sonic. A claw-like arm extended out of the Tornado and grabbed Sonic, pulling him towards the side of the plane where Tails opened the window and pulled Sonic in to safety before it flooded. His lungs were full of water, and he began coughing. When he was done, he said nothing, but handed Tails the Chaos Emerald with a look of pure triumph on his face.**

**"Great job Sonic!"**

**"Yeah, you too! Now let's get out of here. I've had enough water for one day."**

**"Alright," Tails said. "Look," he said as they ascended out of the water and transformed the Tornado back into plane mode. "The storm's over!"**

**"Looks like a bad day turned out pretty good, eh? We got the Chaos Emerald!"**

**"Right, and that's number four! Whatever Eggman's planning, he can't stop us now! Right, Sonic?"**

**"Right, little bro!"**

**A few minutes past, and they were now just zooming the Tornado around the outskirts of town for fun. Nothing peaceful could last long though.**


	5. Chapter 5: Into the Desert

Okay, next Chapter! Disclaimer's on the first two pages if you're really that interested in it.

**Tails gasped as he looked back at the Emerald. "Sonic! Look!"**

**The Emerald was glowing very bright. "Turn around, Tails!"**

"**Hang on tight!" Tails did a quick one-eighty and went back in the other direction. "The signal's getting stronger!" Indeed it was. The Emerald was heating up to the point where Tails had to drop it. It was vibrating, too.**

"**Land the Tornado, now! We have to get that Chaos Emerald." Tails descended the plane toward the sand. He pressed a button and wheels cam out from the bottom of the Tornado. It wouldn't do much use though. If they were going to land in sand, it's not like the wheels would keep the Tornado balanced. Tails spotted a flat area of sand that looked pretty firm. "Sonic, we're landing down there. Be ready for a crash landing though, I'm not sure how well a plane of this size will land in an area like this. Let's just hope for the best, though! Here we go!" As feared, it wasn't a smooth landing. You needed cement or hardened dirt for that. The plane was half-way buried by the time it stopped sliding. Sonic, who had been standing on the plane's wing as usual, was thrown off and also buried in sand.**

"**Sonic! Are you alright?" Tails said as he climbed out of the plane. He dusted the sand off him and helped him up. He groaned, and rubbed an already-forming bruise on his right arm. He had landed right on it.**

"**I'm fine, thanks," he said, but his arm hung limp and useless at his side.**

"**Are you sure? You're not looking too good."**

"**Don't worry," Sonic said reassuringly.**

**They weren't in Station Square anymore. It looked more like a desert; it seemed like the sand went on forever in every direction.**

**Tails's attention soon left Sonic's arm as he said frantically, "Oh no! Sonic, where's the Chaos Emerald?"**

"**You had it when we crash landed, didn't you?"**

"**I forgot! Shoot, where'd it go? What if it got buried in the sand?"**

"**I guess we'll just have to dig it up!"**

**Tails began digging frantically while Sonic ran around the Tornado a few times, and spotting nothing, climbed inside it. "Tails, it's right here. It never left the plane!"**

**Tails stood up. "Oh. Didn't think of looking around in there. Speaking of the Tornado, how are we going to dig _that _up?"**

"**I don't know, but let's figure that out after we find the Chaos Emerald we're looking for." Sonic looked down at the Emerald he was holding to see how bright the glow was—they should be close. "Hey Tails, the Chaos Emerald's not glowing anymore. It was when we landed. Is the Emerald we're looking for—moving?"**

"**You guessed right, hedgehog," Eggman said as he suddenly descended down in front of them. He was in a robotic machine that was about ten feet tall. It stood on two bulky legs and had very long arms so it could reach it's enemy, even when it was several feet away. Its right arm was an open hole that fired lasers, its left arm was a huge hand covered in spikes. It was more powerful than it looked, and it _looked _powerful. Or at least, it would be more powerful than it looked in a few minutes… The Emerald Sonic had started to glow again. "Hahaha—you fell right into my trap! I suggest you hand that Emerald to your little fox friend and let him examine it closely."**

**Tails took the Emerald from Sonic. "It's a… a fake."**

"**What?"**

"**He's right, Sonic. Once again you fools have been tricked. And look what I found in your plane while you were distracted looking for that phony Emerald!" Eggman held up all four Chaos Emeralds that Sonic and Tails had once had in their possession. He also had found the one Tails and Sonic had been looking for.**

"**Sonic, he made a fake Chaos Emerald and customized it so it would glow when we went past this area. It was a trap. I'm real sorry Sonic, I should have took a closer look at that Emerald before."**

"**Forget it. It's not your fault. But right now we have a bigger problem. Eggman just used those five Emeralds to make that robot of his more powerful."**

**Just then Eggman pressed a button and the robot he was in zapped a huge laser towards them. Unaware of this, Sonic and Tails were both knocked off their feet. They struggled their way to a standing position, both covered in several burns. Another laser sent them tumbling into the sand again, and they struggled to get up and get away, only to receive another rough throw from another laser. Bleeding by now, Sonic dashed towards Tails, grabbed him, and kept running in the other direction. All of a sudden they stopped moving. Sonic was trapped in quicksand. Still holding Tails, Sonic thrust him back towards the dry sand so he wouldn't get caught in it. Eggman, still inside his robot, was laughing at him from the edge of the quicksand. "You're trapped! You have no escape! It looks like the end has finally come for Sonic the hedgehog."**

**Sonic struggled to get out, and even tried to spin dash, but now, speed wasn't going to be enough to save him. He was only a few yards into the quicksand, but it wouldn't have made a difference if he was there, and inch from dry sand, or a hundred feet from dry sand. If he couldn't move, he would never be able to get out. Still being able to barely reach Sonic, Eggman pressed a button and his robot hit Sonic hard in the chest with a punch. "Tails, get out of here! Get out now!" Sonic yelled. He was at the mercy of Eggman and there was nothing he could do about it. And never, NEVER, would he beg Eggman for mercy. Sonic didn't beg anyone for mercy. He wasn't the type to just surrender to fate like that. "Tails, why are you just standing there?" Another blow hit Sonic right in the gut. He gasped for breath, shaking from pain and fear, but rage more than anything. He looked down at the quicksand he was stuck in and realized it was now up to his neck.**

**Eggman then gave Sonic a break as he turned toward Tails. He looked up and spun his namesakes as fast as he could. He ascended into the air as fast as he could, but about thirty feet up, a laser that was even bigger than the rest had been knocked him out of the sky. He fell to the ground, landing hard on his front. Tears in his eyes from intense pain more than anything, Tails struggled to a half-way sitting position, only able to sit himself up that much because he had his hands in the sand to support his weight.**

**You can imagine what was going through Sonic right now. For anyone to hurt Tails like that in front of him felt like being stabbed. The fact that there was nothing he could do about it made him feel even worse. "Tails! Eggman, if you lay another finger on him, you're dead! You hear me? DEAD!"**

"**Normally, I'd believe a threat like that. But you're forgetting you're trapped, Sonic. Now how about if I make the threat for a change—don't you say another word or both of you will be dead—Tails first!"**

**Rage was building up inside Sonic like lava in a volcano that was about to erupt. He had to control his temper though. If it was just him, he'd take that risk, but he wasn't going to lose his best friend because of his short temper.**

**Then something very unexpected happened. Although weak and in pain, Tails flew up into the air with the fake Emerald and yelled "Catch!" to Sonic. "It may be fake, but it still contains the same powers!"**

"**Thanks!" Tails had just saved Sonic's life by tossing him that fake Chaos Emerald, and now it was Sonic's turn to do the same for Tails. As he caught the Emerald, he closed his eyes in concentration as a white glow flashed around him. It may only be one Chaos Emerald supplying him with energy (and a fake one at that), but it was enough power for Sonic. He rose out of the quicksand with little effort, and dashed toward Eggman. But he was forgetting one major thing. Eggman had five real Chaos Emeralds powering his machine. He remembered this too late when the robot's foot hit him and nearly thrust him back into the quicksand. But Sonic avoided that and again attempted to destroy Eggman's robot. He got a good hit right in the center, not even realizing the Emerald's power wasn't with him anymore. Apparently fake Emerald powers didn't last as long. But it didn't matter, because with Sonic as enraged as he was about Eggman attacking Tails, all it took for Sonic to defeat Eggman was sheer determination.**

**Eggman remained on the ground in his robot. _I'll play dead until I'm out of their sight, then when I appear out of nowhere again they'll be in for a surprise! If they think they've seen the worst of this robot, wait until they see what I do with it when they zoom that little plane of theirs off! Muahahaha!_**

**Sonic and Tails were both looking at Eggman. Tails was sort of out of it though, he looked like he was about to pass out. He was covered in burns from head to toe. He was lucky to have no broken bones after that fall, too. "C'mon Tails," Sonic said, "let's get out of here."**

"**But Sonic… What 'bout the Tornado…?" he asked weakly. "We gotta—gotta dig it up…"**

"**It's getting dark, and I'm tired. Plus, I don't think you should be doing anything in the state you're in right now. We'll sleep in the Tornado and dig it up in the morning…"**

**Finally coming to and getting his senses back, Tails said weakly, "No, we should get out of here. It isn't safe with all this quicksand around, and Eggman could come back to consciousness."**

"**You have a point. We probably should get out of here."**

**With that, Sonic started digging up the lower half of the plane and getting all the sand out of the inside while Tails made some repairs to the main engine, which had gotten pretty beat up when they crashed. It took a matter of hours before they were inside the plane and ready to take off. "You got the fake Emerald, right?"**

"**Yeah. Let's get outta here."**

"**Yeah," Tails said as he started up the engine. Nothing happened. "Now what?"**

**Tails got out of the plane, Sonic following behind him. They walked around the plane a bit, looking for any damage. "Uh, Tails?" Sonic said as he looked at the small propeller on the back of the plane.**

"**Yeah?"**

"**I'm no mechanic, but I think our problem is right here."**

**Tails walked over to Sonic. "The propeller's busted. No wonder we couldn't take off." The propeller was bent and had a large crack going down the center of one of the blades. They both sighed. "I'll get to work."**

**After about ten minutes of silence while Tails was fixing up the propeller, he asked, "Hey Sonic?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**Eggman seems serious this time. He tried to kill you three times already! He may try to hurt you, but I hardly ever see him come so close to actually killing you!"**

"**_Close?"_**

"**Seriously, Sonic. You went unconscious twice, and you got trapped in quicksand because of him!"**

"**So what makes you think he's really gonna beat us either way? You know he never does."**

"**I know he hasn't yet, but just—what if he does?"**

"**Don't worry," Sonic assured him. "Look, even I've noticed that Eggman seems to be acting more serious this time, but what can he possibly do to us that he hasn't done once already?"**

"**Sonic, I think—he's after me…"**

"**Why would he be? I've always been his main target. Plus, you just said that he came close to killing me three times, so it's obvious he's just comin' after me again."**

"**But Sonic… He attacked me in the Tornado when we were under water with it, and he turned toward me and attacked me earlier when you were in the quicksand."**

"**He's probably just trying to get you out of the way, so he can get to me."**

"**If he _really _wanted to get to you, he'd have just attacked _you, _straight away," Tails insisted. "That's what he always does."**

**This hadn't hit Sonic until now. He stared up at the sky for a moment, pondering this idea. "—I'm not trying to say I'm scared of him hurting me or anything, and I'm _definitely _not saying I want him to hurt you instead or anything, it's just…"**

"**Just what?"**

"**It's just, why? What does he want with me? I'm curious. If he's trying to attack me when you're the one he's mainly against, he must have a reason for it…"**

"**You may just be imagining it. He's hurt _both _of us plenty if you ask me."**

"**I know that, but sometimes your mind just tells you when something's up, something different. This is one of those times."**

"**Well!" Sonic said, his regular confidence returning to him now, "I guess we'll just have to wait and see. There's nothing we can do about it. After all, it's not like we can walk up to Eggman and just ask him what he's up to."**

"**Hey, I think I fixed it!" Tails said happily as his mind returned to what he was doing. "C'mon, I think we can get going now!"**

"**Wait." Sonic snapped. "Did you realize Eggman's still laying unconscious inside that robot of his over there?"**

**Without waiting for a reply, Sonic cautiously walked over to where Eggman's robot was collapsed in the sand. Tails followed. They looked at the fat figure inside the robot. "It looks like he's still out of it," said Tails. "Man, Sonic, you must've knocked him good! But how could you do that when Eggman had five Chaos Emeralds powerin' his machine?"**

"**I guess I just have the magic touch!" Sonic said. They began walking away, back towards the plane. As he was walking, Sonic heard a low laugh. He turned around so fast that Tails jumped.**

"**What's up?" he asked.**

**Figuring he was just hearing things because he was near Eggman, Sonic calmed down and said, "Oh, it's nothing," and resumed walking. They climbed back into the Tornado, and took off as Sonic took one last suspicious look back at Dr. Eggman. What if Tails was right? What if Eggman was trying to get revenge on Sonic by taking his best friends life from him? Sonic pushed that thought to the back of his mind for now. "Open the cockpit, Tails," he said suddenly.**

**Knowing why, Tails did so and Sonic jumped out and landed on the wing. "There ya go."**

"**Ah, that's better," Sonic said as he felt the cool night breeze in his face. He laid back on the wing with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed, as usual. Tails just smiled as he looked at Sonic, so relaxed over there. Figuring he should do the same, he looked forward and tried to forget about what Eggman might be up to.**

**In a few minutes, Sonic was just about asleep when he felt a hard jerk and found himself clinging onto the plane's wing for dear life. "Tails, what do you think you're doing?"**

"**Egg—man," he stuttered as he fought to control the plane. Sure enough, when Sonic looked, Eggman was tailing them up in the air, inside the same robot, with the five Chaos Emeralds powering it yet again. There was now fire blasting from the bottom of the robot's legs that was keeping it in the air. And thanks to the Chaos Emeralds, it was able to move fast. Very fast. It launched a laser, and there was no time for the Tornado to move out of the way. "Laser shield, now!" Tails pressed a button on the Tornado, and the laser seemed to bounce off some invisible wall. It had hit the shield dead center, and was sent repelling right back toward Eggman. It hit him, and left dents and burns on his robot.**

"**Laser shield?" Sonic asked, clearly astounded at what had just happened. "What the…"**

"**Remember after we battled that robot in that big field a while ago, and I said I made some repairs and improvements? Well, aside from the submarine mode, I also installed some new weapons and defense items. One was the laser shield that was programmed to repel the opponent's attack back at them. The only problem is, it'll only work a few times. Then it'll have to be recharged."**

"**But how did that laser hurt Eggman so badly?"**

"**Because, it was his own laser that hit him, remember? His machine is powered by five Chaos Emeralds, and when a laser supported by five Chaos Emeralds hits you, it does some damage. Even though it was Eggman's own laser, it doesn't mean it can't do damage to him."**

**Eggman fired another laser. Paying attention now, Tails dodged it and launched his entire arsenal of lasers and missiles at him; there was no way he could beat a robot that powerful with only a few missiles. But to Tails's unfortunate surprise, the robot emerged undamaged. Apparently a machine with only one fake Chaos Emerald was no match for a machine with five real ones.**

"**Now it's my turn!" Eggman said, laughing menacingly. He pressed a button and yelled, "FIRE!" and his whole arsenal of weapons combined into one huge laser, about four feet in diameter, firing toward the Tornado.**

**Tails remained calm, however. "We have approximately ten seconds until that laser comes in contact with the Tornado."**

"**The Chaos Emerald!" Sonic yelled. He handed it to Tails, who inserted it in a little space in the control area. It lit up.**

"**Transfer all Chaos energy to laser shield!" Tails pressed a button and the laser shield came up. "If I'm in just the right position—"**

**But there was no time for Tails to finish his sentence. The laser hit the shield with devastating force, knocking the Tornado backwards. It began falling towards the sandy ground. But on the bright side, the laser had still repelled and hit Eggman, and he was also plummeting towards ground in the other direction.**

**As they were falling, Sonic yelled, "Tails, jump!" and Tails jumped out of the cockpit, grabbing Sonic on the way. They were nearing ground very quickly. Tails was spinning his namesakes with all his might. He slowed their landing a great deal, but it was still a painful fall. They landed in the sand, sending it flying everywhere. About one hundred feet away, the Tornado hit the ground. It hadn't blown up, but it was badly damaged. It would take a lot of work on Tails's part to fix it up.**

**Sonic groaned, rubbing his back. "You okay?" he asked Tails.**

"**Yeah. I think."**

"**Grab my hand, we're getting out of here!" Tails obeyed, and Sonic zipped off. They would have to come back for the Tornado another time. Right now, they had more important things to worry about, like getting back to Station Square.**

Okay, next chapter, the two go underground for a long battle! Please leave a review for this chapter!


	6. Chapter 6: The Unknown Cave

'Kay, next Chapter! Hope somebody reads this!

"**Sonic, slow down!" Tails said after a few minutes. "Sonic!"**

**Sonic skidded to a halt, seeing what Tails had been warning him about. They walked forward another fifty feet or so to what seemed like a bottomless pit. It was probably about thirty or forty feet across, and heaven only knows how far down... "Whoa," Sonic said. "now that's a big crater!"**

"**I wonder why this is here?"**

"**I don't know. Looks like they're trying to make another Underground Railroad or something'."**

"**I'd guess it leads to an underground cave, but this hole was probably once covered up by ground. After years of weathering and erosion, the sand and ground must've worn away—and eventually revealed the whole thing."**

"**Hm. Then it's no big deal. Let's just go around it and go back to the city. Speaking of the city, I think I can see Station Square from here."**

**Just then, the two heard a quiet noise behind them. Sonic turned, only to find himself falling into the pit. Tails turned now, coming face to face with Eggman. He wasn't in his big ol' robot anymore, just his Egg-Walker. "Eggman!" he yelped, more in surprise than anything else.**

"**Ha..ha..ha…"**

**Tails hesitated for a second, and then remembered that Sonic had just been pushed into the bottomless hole. He turned abruptly and jumped in after him. Very quickly, he saw Sonic, falling lower and lower. Knowing what to do, Tails threw himself downward toward Sonic as fast and as hard as he could, and falling in behind him, grabbed Sonic under both of his arms, and propelled his tails like there was no tomorrow (and if he couldn't slow their fall, there wouldn't be). Who knew how far the darkness would go? Pretty soon, the darkness of the hole would be all around them, and they wouldn't know which way was up. Tails looked around frantically. He shouldn't fly both of them back up; Eggman was right there waiting for them. But he couldn't keep going down, either.**

"**Tails! Over there! It looks like a loose wall!" As he looked to where Sonic's head was facing, Tails saw (amazing enough, he could still see it) a cracked section in the rocky wall. This being the only chance they had, Tails dove for it, all the time thinking: _What if there's nothing behind that wall? What if it's just a crack?_**

**Nonetheless, he kept going, and slammed head first into the wall. To his surprise, it broke down as easily as a thin piece of wood would have snapped in half. And to their extreme luck, there _was _and open area for landing behind the broken down wall—they just didn't realize it soon enough. They hit the rock ground at a very fast speed, the momentum causing them both to keep rolling. They skidded to a halt after about ten long seconds of getting scrapes and cuts all over them, and both shocked (more from their luck of finding an opening than from all their injuries), they speechlessly walked back over to where they had entered the rocky tunnel, and looked up, down, and everywhere they could. No sign of much light anywhere. Still not saying a word, the two of them walked on, following the only trail they could: the cave.**

"**Hey, uh, Tails?" Sonic finally said after several more minutes of silence.**

"**Uh-huh?"**

"**Do you have _any _idea where we are?"**

"**A bit too dark to tell."**

"**Why am I not surprised?"**

"**Sonic, are we just going to keep walking here? This isn't getting us anywhere."**

"**Good point, maybe we should turn around."**

"**Yeah, I can fly us out!"**

"**Why didn't we think of that before?"**

"**I guess there was just a little too much goin' on already," Tails said with a slight chuckle.**

"**Hey, uh, Tails?" Sonic said yet again. "Do you hear something?"**

"**Yeah, sounds like a rumbling… Uh-oh, Sonic…"**

**They looked down as the rock beneath them began crumbling beneath their feet. Sonic looked up, noticing the next problem before Tails. The ground wasn't the only thing crumbling.**

"**Look out!" Sonic dove for Tails and drove both of them forward with all his might. They managed to avoid the chunks of rock falling from above them, but the ground beneath them was still breaking apart. With nothing left to stand on, they fell with the rocks.**

**"Tails…, Tails," Sonic said quietly, shaking the fox by one of his shoulders. He didn't move. Sonic put a hand on his chest. He felt it rising slowly up and down, and was relieved to know that Tails was at least breathing. Sonic had just waken up from unconsciousness, but Tails was still out of it. Little did he know that they had been sleeping for the better part of a day. That fall had been to far and _way _too hard on contact to remain awake. Sonic stood up, and not realizing until then that he was badly injured, immediately sat back down. There seemed to be a bit more light by now—perhaps their eyes had adjusted to the dark—but it still wasn't that much. It was about the amount of light you'd get from an average sized bedroom in the evening (assuming the lights in it were off), and that was enough for Sonic to examine himself. He soon came to the conclusion that his left leg was badly sprained, and that he had a rather large scab on his head, on top of an even larger bump. He again tried unsuccessfully to wake Tails up. No luck. "I hope he's alright. What if he got a concussion or something?" Sonic said to himself. He wanted to run off and find a way out of here, but with his injuries, and the fact that he didn't want to leave Tails alone while he was asleep incase something else happened, kept him rooted to the spot. He looked at Tails, just laying there with all his limbs spread out on the ground. From his point of view, he didn't see anything serious. Just some minor scrapes and cuts. It was then that he noticed that the rock he was now leaning on was trapping one of Tails's tails. If he could get it off before Tails came to, it would make things a lot easier for both of them. With difficulty, Sonic stood up and began pushing the rock. It moved a little, but when he let go, it just rolled back to where it was. After a few more attempts at this, Sonic decided to try it the hard way, spin dashing. Normally, he could have broken the rock easily with a spin dash, but it would be hard to go very fast while doing it, and his sprained leg would make it even harder to roll up into a ball, _and _if that weren't enough, there wasn't much room to maneuver so he could get a good running start. Not discouraged by this, in fact, not even thinking about it, Sonic backed up several feet and charged at the rock, spinning all the way. It broke to pieces, and once he landed, Sonic put his arms over Tails to keep broken chunks from hitting him. Once the dust cleared, Sonic looked over at the tail that had been under the rock. It looked flattened like a pancake. Sonic peeled it off the ground and looked at it. Luckily, not much of the bone or skin had been under the rock, so it wouldn't be to badly damaged. It would sure hurt though, and as if Sonic's decrease in speed because of his leg wasn't going to be enough, Tails probably wouldn't be able to fly for a few days at least.**

**"Wha…!" Tails awoke suddenly and sat up. Sonic jumped back in surprise.**

**"It's about time you woke up! Must've been three hours since I woke up. I don't even know how long I was asleep either…"**

**"Sorry if I scared ya," Tails said to Sonic. He sounded like his normal self; that was a good sign. "I just sort of had a bad dream before I woke up. I don't even remember what it was now. Funny how dreams work that way."**

**"Do you feel alright? That was a long fall we took there."**

**"I think I'm fine. I don't think anything's broken. But your head…"**

**"I know, I have a huge bump… It doesn't hurt that bad right now though. Don't worry about it. But Tails, do me a favor. Try flying."**

**He began spinning his tails, but the second he got the muscles in them moving, he said, "Ouch… I'm sorry, I don't think I can! I must've landed on my tails when I fell…"**

**"Yeah, something like that. My leg's sprained, too, so don't feel bad."**

**"Looks like we both got our injuries in the places it would affect us most."**

**"Let's keep going this way, there's no way we're going to get out of here the same way we came now."**

**"Wow, I'm tired."**

**"Yeah, so am I for just waking up. I'm hungry too. A chilidog would hit the spot!"**

**"Sonic, when d'you think we'll find our way out of here?"**

**"Soon enough, pal. As long as we keep looking!" Sonic said with a thumbs-up sign. Tails returned it, a little more cheerful now. Sonic could always cheer him up with a little encouragement.**

**"Wow, Tails. Look! It's about time we got somewhere," Sonic said as the two of them came to the end of the long tunnel. They were looking out over a huge open area in the cave that was full of water almost all the way up to the tunnel end on which they were standing. Most of the water was covered from view by rock, though. You wouldn't want to get trapped under there. It wasn't until a few moments later that Sonic noticed the water, and as he looked at it, said, "Okay, time to turn around and find another way…"**

**"Sonic, you can't be scared of water forever."**

**"I'm not scared!" he snapped back, a little to quickly and loudly to be anything but a lie.**

**"Sonic, I just noticed that this tunnel doesn't continue on the other side of the water anywhere…"**

**"Well, there has to be some where else to go. If there's not—''**

**"—then we'll be trapped here!"**

**They were both silent as they thought about this for a few moments. "I'd go, but I can't swim!" Sonic said.**

**"I'd go too, but I can't fly like this, not with my tail still flattened like a pancake—but I can swim."**

**"Do you want to take a look?"**

**"Yeah, I'm just hoping I don't run into any big problems!" Without further conversation, Tails jumped into the water, holding as much air in his lungs as he could. Sonic watched him swim down. It looked so easy, maybe he should try swimming sometime. His shivered at the thought of this, and then began to wonder why he was even afraid of water.**

**Under the water, Tails was swimming at a very fast pace to his surprise. He felt like he couldn't hold his breath much longer, though. _Oh man, if there isn't a place to pop up for air around here… _Now desperate, Tails spun his one working namesake and pushed himself forward. He looked around frantically, and feeling himself getting dizzy, started exhaling slowly. At least you couldn't drown from breathing out. _I see an opening, but I don't think I can get through it with this big rock in my way! _Tails thought to himself. But he managed to squeeze through and get on top of the big rock. "Hi Sonic!" Tails said across the area, letting Sonic know he was okay.**

**"Are you okay? Can you see anything from there?"**

**"I'm looking! Wait, here! There's a hole! Just wide enough to fit through. The water is flowing down it, but it's nothing that'll drown you! But in order to get over here, you're going to have to swim!"**

**"What?"**

**"I'll be right there, I know how to get here now so I'll be able to get you over here fast!"**

**"I sure hope so!"**

**Tails squeezed his way through the rock and went back under the water-tunnel. He found it a lot easier the second time. He was able to find his way back without nearly drowning. He climbed back onto the platform that Sonic was standing on and grabbed his hand. Without warning, Tails told Sonic to hold his breath and they jumped in. They went through the same little underwater tunnel Tails had taken the first time, and everything went well until they got to the big rock blocking their path. As usual, Tails managed to squeeze through. Sonic, though, being taller and bigger than Tails, got stuck. Tails heard him fighting to get through and turned around. **

**"Sonic! Don't panic, I'll get ya out!" Tails might as well have said "Sonic! You're gonna drown and I'm not gonna help ya!" because Sonic just fought even harder, groaning and panicking the whole time. Tails grabbed Sonic's hand and pulled, but it was no use. _Tails _had just barely been able to squeeze through. What in the world made him think _Sonic _would be able to? Sure, he wasn't _that _much bigger than Tails, but he was just the right size to squeeze through the rock far enough to get him somewhere, but not far enough to get out. He couldn't move, and as Tails saw air bubbles ascend from his mouth and his head start to hang, he knew that within seconds, Sonic would get to much water in his lungs and die.**

**But Tails wasn't about to let that happen. With a huge rush of adrenaline going through his body, Tail threw himself at the rock as hard as he could and shoved it with all his might. The rock budged but two inches. Tails jumped in the water after Sonic as he slid out from between the rock and the wall, sinking to the bottom. Tails grabbed Sonic and pulled him back up to the surface, kicking hard to keep both of them above the water. To Tails's relief, Sonic began coughing and choking up water. "Thanks a lot for that," he said after he was done choking.**

**"That was close! You're lucky you didn't drown!"**

**"I wish there was some sort of dry surface right here so I could take a break!" Sonic complained. But there wasn't. Once you managed to squeeze through the rock, you could get a breath of air again, but there was no where to get out of the water except climbing on the rock. Tails kept swimming above the water, and Sonic kicked his legs, but it didn't do much good; it wasn't like he'd ever gone swimming before. Tails swam them to the hole he had been talking about. It was about two feet in diameter, and about one fourth of it was under the water. Therefore, a little bit of water would be carrying them down the hole when they went.**

**"Tails, how do you know this leads somewhere? It could just be blocked by rocks in the middle."**

**"Easy! If it was, the water going into it would eventually get backed up, and none would be able to flow down that hole anymore. Judging by the crumbly rocks, this cave has been here for centuries, and that means the water has been flowing down that hole for centuries."**

**"Okay, then wouldn't this area eventually be all dry? I mean, if water kept going through that hole, this area would eventually run out of it."**

**"True, but I think I saw a waterfall back when we were at the end of that tunnel. It must be coming from there. But enough talk, let's forget about where the water came from and get going."**

**"Okay, let's go," Sonic went in the hole first, and started sliding very fast down it because of the water. Tails followed closely. "This is fun!" Sonic said. He wasn't really scared of water unless there was a chance he would drown in it.**

**"This is like a waterslide!" Tails said behind Sonic. It was. There were twists and turns and curves everywhere. It was almost like it had been manmade in Tails's opinion, because there was a pretty small chance of something like this just forming from erosion. Maybe someone _did _make it. But who?**

**All of a sudden, the 'waterslide' split up in two directions. Caught by surprise, Sonic went left while Tails went right. "Oh no! Tails? Whoaaahhhh!" Sonic screamed as the slide came to and end, and he zipped out. Luckily though, he managed to have his feet facing the ground by the time he landed. "Tails! I wonder where his path took him?"**

**"A bit to the north, Sonic!" he heard Tails yell. He looked up and saw Tails hanging from the edge of where his 'slide' came to an end. It was about fifty feet up.**

**"Go ahead and drop, but try and slow your fall using your working tail! I'm right here!"**

**Tails hesitated, let go, and landed in Sonic's arms. Sonic set Tails down and they moved on. "Big cave," Tails said after a few minutes.**

**"Thanks for clearing that up for me," Sonic retorted, clearly impatient at the amount of time it was taking to get out of the cave. He looked around as he walked, and did a double-take to the side as he spotted something shiny. "C'mere," he said to Tails. They walked over to it. Tails bent down and picked up a shiny piece of metal. He looked at it for a minute or so, and then said quietly, "A robot part…?"**

**"What? Don't tell me Eggman has another base down here!"**

**"That's why Eggman pushed us down here… He's waiting for us somewhere!"**

Cliffhanger, I know. I have a nasty knack of doing that. See ya next chapter.


	7. Chapter 7: To Capture the Fox

This is the Chapter that'll tell you why this story is called Capture the Fox.

**How do you know it's an Eggman robot part?"**

**Tails showed him the bottom of the part, where it said "ROBOTNIK corp." in small black letters.**

**"Oh. Well, what if it's not a base? I don't see any sign of machinery."**

**"I don't know for sure. But I think if we keep walking, we'll find out some answers."**

**They found some answers soon enough. Their path was blocked by a metal door that had the unmistakable logo of Robotnik on it: A black circle with a mouth, eyes, and three spikes sticking out from either side of the circle (the mustache). The door looked so thick, Sonic wondered if even Knuckles would be able to break it.**

**"It's password protected," Tails said as he approached the door and examined a keypad with letters and numbers on it. Next to the keypad, Tails noticed a small computer screen. On it was the letter combination: NAMGGE.**

**"It's "Eggman" spelled backwards," Sonic noted as he eyed the computer screen. "Try typing it in."**

**Tails typed it in, but was hesitant to press the enter button.**

**"What's wrong?"**

**"I… No… It's too easy. Eggman's trying to trick us into typing this password." Tails pictured in his mind what would happen if he pressed the enter button. It wasn't pretty. "But maybe it's not a trap. Eggman could have left this on screen by mistake."**

**Sonic thought. He took a lot of risks, but not suicidal ones. Pressing that button was just asking for death. "Why don't you take a closer look at this door and see if you can find any explosives? Then we'll at least know if the door will explode or not if we submit the password."**

**Tails looked at the door, examining it from top to bottom. It had a lot of color and shape for a metal door. Otherwise it would have been easy to tell if it was a trap. "Hm… No signs of bombs or wires anywhere…"**

**"Okay!" Sonic went right ahead and pressed the Enter button without thinking (that was nothing new). Nothing happened for a few seconds, but suddenly they felt something painful cover their feet. They looked down simultaneously and yelped simultaneously.**

**"It's some sort of toxic fluid."**

**"Feels more like lava!" Sonic said.**

**It seemed to be flooding with electricity, and was causing Sonic and Tails and increasingly greater amount of pain as it rose. "_Now _what?" Sonic said, his thoughts torn between fear and impatience.**

**"If I only knew the real password…" Tails said to himself as he put his fingers on the keypad. He immediately started typing any words he could think of that had to do with Eggman: Maria, Sonic, Robotnik, Robot… "Nothing! What's the darn password?" Tails then thought of something that amused him for a second. His mind quickly went back to the pain that was quickly rising toward his chest, and he typed his thoughts: the word, EGG. To his surprise, it opened. The two rushed out into what looked like a huge factory. They weren't paying much attention to this though. Tails was wiping all the toxic fluid off of his body while Sonic visibly relaxed and let out a breath. Toxic fluid was close enough to water for him. **

**It wasn't until they recovered from their close incident that they noticed where they were. "Wow, this looks like your kind of place, Tails!" Sonic commented. It was true. There were machines everywhere, from conveyor belts to welders to big machines that even Tails couldn't recognize. He wondered what they were being used for.**

**"I wonder what this is all about? It sure don't look like a cave anymore."**

**"Time to find out!" Sonic said as he began walking around the factory.**

**Tails's left namesake was still injured, but he managed to fly up to one of the conveyor belts that was particularly high up. It cost him, though. He winced as he landed and massaged the injured tail before walking in the opposite direction the conveyor belt was moving. He kept treading forward in order to keep himself from going back in the direction the conveyor belt was moving, and looked down to its source. He happened to be looking inside one of the big machines that was in question earlier. "Whoa, Sonic!" Tails said, immediately jumping back down. Sonic was in front of him in a split second. "C'mere! Look at this!" Tails picked Sonic up and again rose up into the air towards the conveyor belt. They landed and Tails guided Sonic towards the machine it was coming from.**

**"It _is _Eggman's factory…!" Sonic said. The fifty-foot tall machine was full of welders, robot parts, and big automatic machines that put the parts together. Sonic jumped down inside and landed on one of the platforms. "Hey, what's that stuff at the bottom, Tails?"**

**"Hm…" Tails jumped down after him and landed next to him. "Looks like the same radioactive fluid we were trapped in earlier. It must be what Eggman's using to power his robots! If I can get a sample of it, I just might be able to figure out what it really is, and how it powers the robots. There must be a little tank that this stuff is put into so it can go inside the robot. I guess it acts sort of like oil, but I think that somehow it has some kind of power. I mean, I don't know about you, but I felt like I was being electrocuted with something so cold it burned earlier. I don't want to touch it, and if I try and put it in some sort of container, it may just dissolve whatever it's in."**

**"It's not like we're going to get back to your workshop any time soon. You might as well just forget about it for now. 'Sides, you seem to know an awful lot about it already."**

**"Do you think it's powered by Chaos Emeralds?"**

**"Oh, I'm sure of it. Eggman did take those five Chaos Emeralds from us, didn't he? He must be using them for something."**

**"Uh-oh, time to get out of here Sonic. There's a red light and a siren going off above us. That's something big ol' machines usually do when something's about to happen."**

**Sonic looked down to discover that the fluid was rising. "Tails, fly us out of here!" Tails jumped up in the air and Sonic grabbed his ankles. He spun his namesakes furiously and they escaped the machine before the liquid rose too high. About one-quarter of the way back down to the ground, Sonic accidentally let go of Tails's ankles and began falling. "A fifty-foot fall won't result in a pleasant landing!" Sonic said. Catching sight of a lever sticking out of the side of the machine, he instinctively grabbed it. While doing so, his weight caused it to jerk down. There was a loud rumbling as small doors at the bottoms of all the big machines opened, releasing a flood of robots. They weren't all that big or powerful, but there was strength in numbers. Still a good thirty feet from ground, Sonic held on to the lever with both hands, and tight. If he had been worried about landing on the ground before, it would be something different to land in a sea of robots.**

**"I got ya, Sonic," Tails said as he flew down toward him. He grabbed Sonic and yanked the lever back up. The doors on the machines closed and the robots stopped flooding out. It was a little late to do that though, at least nine tenths of the robots were already out; what damage would thirty more do? **

**Tails continued flying toward the door they had come in through. Just as he was about to go under it though, it closed abruptly. Without thinking, Tails turned around and headed back up to another conveyor belt, then changed his mind and landed on top of one of the big machines instead; the higher, the better. Hopefully none of them could fly.**

**"Sonic, that door couldn't have just closed by itself the second we got there! Somebody did it. Eggman must be down here, watching us!"**

**"Hmph! Well, he's going to get a taste of his own medicine pretty soon!"**

**"But Sonic, what will we do about these robots 'til we find 'im?"**

**"We have to fight them."**

**"But Sonic…"**

**"What choice do we have, Tails?"**

**Tails hesitated for a moment, and said, "Okay, grab my ankles. Let's do it!"**

**Tails flew Sonic down and landed next to him. They stood back to back, so that no enemies could come up behind them. The robots charged, and Sonic and Tails attacked. There were punches, kicks, groans, and explosions all around. The continuous fighting went on for about fifteen minutes nonstop, and then Sonic yelled, "Tails, hand me that fake Emerald! I may be able to use it!" Tails turned around to hand it to Sonic, giving one of the robots enough time to strike him in the head. Tails fell down. He wasn't unconscious, but apparently he was seeing stars. Sonic bent down to pick up the Emerald and help Tails to his feet, but only received a blow to his head just like Tails had. He managed to keep his balance, and without looking, threw a hand behind him hard and struck the robot hard, making a clean hole through its center. It fell to the ground like a board and set on fire. It soon spread, destroying robots as it did. Pretty soon, Sonic and Tails were surrounded by fire and a few lucky robots that hadn't blown up from it yet. The two took care of them without a problem, Tails whipping each of his namesakes at a different robot, and Sonic, slamming down on their heads. Pretty soon they were the only two left in the factory, and it would have been as it was before Sonic pulled the lever if there wasn't a fire surrounding them. There was about five square feet of ground left for them to stand in now, and the fire was so close to them it was already creating burns on their skin. Tails was spinning his namesakes as fast as he could, attempting to put out the fire around him.**

**"Tails, I'll be right back. You just hang tight!" Not waiting for an answer, Sonic jumped in the air until he was above the fire by just a few inches, and started spin dashing around the whole factory. He went in circles, and the air being created from Sonic's immense speed was slowly causing the fire to die away. He went faster and faster, and Tails found that his eyes could no longer keep up with him. Suddenly there was a huge bang, and a strong gust of wind blew in the factory, putting an end to the spreading fire. **

**Tails found himself flat on his back once all the wind went by. He sat up, with his eyes just barely open. Exhausted though he was, he started yelling weakly, "Sonic? Sonic? You okay? Where are you?" Tails began wondering what that huge sound was, and hoped that Sonic wasn't harmed in it. What if it was an explosion on the other side of the factory? What if Sonic had gotten caught in it? Tails couldn't tell; there was too much smoke in the factory. Maybe that was why he was so dazed. Maybe a lot of smoke had just gotten into his lungs. His fears that Sonic had gotten hurt vanished though, as he saw the silhouette of Sonic come walking toward him through the smoke. When he was finally able to make out his face, Tails could see that Sonic was smiling. "Sonic! You alright? I heard a big bang! What was that? Do you know how to get out of here? Do you have a bunch of smoke in your lungs, too?"**

"**Calm down Tails, I can only answer one question at a time. Yes, I'm fine. That loud bang was a sonic boom. I don't know how to get out of here yet. And I do feel pretty crappy right now, my throat's dry and sore, that's for sure. So I'd say yes, I probably got smoke in my lungs. Any more questions?"**

"**Nope, I think you covered everything. So if you don't know, and I don't know, what are we gonna do until we get out of here, Sonic?"**

"**Don't you worry Tails," came a familiar voice other then Sonic's. "_I'll _get _you _out of here."**

**Tails turned to look, but was knocked in the head before he had a chance to see who it was.**

"**Eggman!" Sonic said. "I knew you were around here somewhere!"**

**Eggman was in his little Egg-walker. Nothing that big and threatening. Okay, so it could be threatening, but definitely not big. Not for one of Eggman's creations, anyway. It was only about five feet tall, excluding the extra height added to it when Eggman was in it. It was simply a robotic walker that Eggman sat inside of that had two legs and a couple of useful weapons.**

**Eggman picked up the now unconscious Tails and backed up about ten feet, just to make safe distance with Sonic, who was now shaking with rage. "How _dare _you make him pass out! I swear, when I'm through with you you'll be dead before you hit the ground!" There was nothing worse that could be done to Sonic then to see his friends get hurt. Especially Tails. He started toward Eggman, but came to a sudden stop as he saw Eggman take out a small laser gun. He held it to Tails's head.**

"**Ah, ah, ah. Don't you take another speedy step, hedgehog!"**

**Sonic swore under his breath. "Don't you even try it, you mustache maniac!"**

"**Test me! I dare you, take another step!" Eggman tested.**

**If it was Amy, Sonic would take the chance of grabbing her and fleeing. Even with Tails he could most likely dash over and grab him and get out. But this was one time Sonic didn't want to take a risk. Not if it meant the possible death of his friend.**

"**Eggman…"**

"**I'm waiting. You make your decision now. He either goes with me, or he goes. It's your choice."**

"**Take him," Sonic whispered.**

"**Pardon?" Eggman said, wanting to hear Sonic surrender again.**

"**I… said… TAKE HIM! TAKE HIM AND GET OUT! BUT I'LL FIND YOU, AND HIM! AND IF YOU HARM HIM IN ANY WAY, ANY WAY AT _ALL_, YOU'RE GOING TO WISH YOU NEVER MET ME!" Sonic was breathing so hard that you'd be able to hear him across the factory if it was quiet enough. **

**Eggman blasted the boosters on the Egg-walker's feet and shot up into the air, out of sight. There was still smoke in the factory though, and Sonic couldn't see where Eggman went. All he knew was that he escaped the closed in factory by means unknown to him, and that he took Tails with him. He stared at the spot where Eggman and Tails had disappeared from sight for a long time, five minutes at least. Finally he said to himself, "Hang on Tails, hang on." **

Okay, I'll try and update as soon as I can, so keep checking back!


	8. Chapter 8: Team Sonic Search Party

**As the smoke finally cleared away, Sonic began to focus on another problem: How was he supposed to go save Tails if he couldn't get out of here? His question was soon answered as he heard a loud bang against the metal ceiling above him. He looked in the direction it came from, and saw a dent: one that was shaped like a circle with two little triangles sticking out of it. "Knuckles?" Sonic heard another bang. This time the dent burst open, revealing Knuckles's face.**

"**Hey Sonic, had a feeling you were down here."**

"**Just a feeling, huh?"**

"**Well, I was around the area and I saw Eggman hover off with Tails right about here. I saw the metal on the ground and thought, hey that's kind of weird, so I broke through."**

"**Good thing you're around right now. I had no idea how to get out!"**

"**Come on, I'll pull you out!"**

**Sonic jumped up and grabbed hold of Knuckles's hand. He pulled Sonic out of the hole. "Ah, it's nice to be in the daylight again. Hey, uh, Knuckles, buddy, do you think you could help me save Tails?"**

"**Sonic, I don't even know where Eggman took him."**

"**Neither do I!" **

"**And besides, I need to get back to the Master Emerald!"**

"**Apparently you don't care about it that much, if you're this far away from it. Why r' you even over here, anyway? This is the middle of a forest!"**

"**Long story… Uh, actually, the Master Emerald's been stolen. Happened while I was asleep last night."**

"**By who?"**

"**How should I know? I was sleeping!"**

"**Well in that case, you have nothing better to do then help me find Tails!"**

"**Okay, I'll help you. On one condition."**

"**What's that?"**

"**I want you to help me find the Master Emerald afterwards."**

"**Deal."**

"**Do you really mean that?"**

"**Yes! You can trust me, can't you? Don't answer that."**

"**Alright, let's just get started before I change my mind. First we have to find out where exactly Eggman took Tails. Then, we have to find a way to get there…"**

**"…And then we have to find out just why Eggman captured _him, _and then we're going to save him!"**

**"Do you think maybe we should get some help? The more people we have looking, the better. I mean, we should find him fast before it's too late."**

**"You're right. I'll go around town and ask folks to keep their eye out for him. I'll try to find Amy or Cream on the way, too. You, do me a favor. Go find the Chaotix Detective Agency. They may be able to help us too. Go as fast as you can… without me escorting you there."**

**"Watch it."**

**"Alright, alright. No time for jokes, I know. Not with Tails in danger. Okay, let's get going." Sonic ran off, leaving Knuckles standing there with dust and dirt in his face. He was grumbling angrily, but ran off to look for the Chaotix team nonetheless. He didn't have any idea where to look, or even if they were present in Station Square. The city wasn't that far away, but it still would have been nice to run at sonic speed for once to pick up the pace a little.**

**After about ten minutes, Knuckles was on the streets of Station Square, walking casually and turning his head every so often to look for any signs of the Chaotix Detective Agency, and maybe a piece or two of the Master Emerald. "I don't see why Sonic wants my help with this. I thought he'd never ask for that. He's too proud to ask for help most of the time. I guess I'll admit, Tails does sort of, well, matter to me. He's gotten me out of some pretty bad situations, and I guess I ought to do the same for him." If Knuckles wasn't an echidna, he probably wouldn't even bother returning the favor. But he had to be faithful to his tribe, and leaving a friend in the dust would shatter his pride. Either way, he did care somewhat for Tails, regardless of whether he admitted it or not. And although he found Sonic mostly as, well, an annoyance at best, he did have a fair amount of respect for the hedgehog. Plus, if he helped Sonic find Tails, not only would he have a better chance of finding the Master Emerald, he would have a nice adventure as well. This brightened Knuckles's spirits. He hardly ever got a chance to get off of his island and do something fun. Sometimes he wished he could be more like Sonic (only in the sense that he'd be able to have more adventure). **

**Knuckles kept walking as he thought about what it would be like to have a life of freedom instead of having to guard some big rock. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind though, as he didn't want to tempt himself to throw his duty down the drain.**

**Finally, he saw a familiar house-like structure that said 'Chaotix Detective Agency' across the top. He knocked on the door for a few minutes, and when no one came, decided no one was there. Of course. It had been to easy to find the house. Nothing could ever be that easy. Okay, so he'd found the house. Now he'd either have to deal with the impatience of waiting for someone to return or go find Vector or Espio (Charmy? Yeah, right) himself. He turned around and started walking back the other way.**

**Meanwhile, Sonic had told many citizens to keep their eye out for Tails, along with Cream and Cheese. He didn't know exactly where to find Amy, but he'd already been through half of Station Square, so he was bound to find her soon. He walked by a few stores to see if she was shopping. Nothing. He ran along the beach for a few minutes; maybe she was hanging out there. Nothing. He started to run back towards the workshop, thinking that maybe Amy was looking for him since she always was. Amy knew that Sonic spent a lot of time at Tails's workshop, right? Maybe she was headed over there right now.**

"**Sonic! Son-ic!" Sonic came to an abrupt stop and turned around. There she was. "Sonic, I've been trying to catch you all day! Why didn't you slow down?"**

"**Uh, I guess I just didn't notice. I was looking for you, too."**

"**Hmph! It's about time you came to your senses!"**

"**Amy, it's not about that!"**

"**Man, I thought I had you this time."**

**Sonic sighed. "There's something more important going on right now, Amy!"**

"**Of course. There always is! How come you never have time for me?"**

"**Amy, please! Tails is gone. Eggman captured him. I don't know where he is. I came here to ask you and a couple others to help me look for him. Normally I'd do something like this on my own, but I really have no idea where Eggman's taking him or what he's going to do to him, and I don't want to find out the hard way. The more people I have searching, the better. I want to find him, and fast!"**

"**Well you should have told me that before!" Amy said, sounding very frustrated.**

"**Trust me, I tried! Now, do me a favor and help Cream and Cheese search around the city for Eggman, Tails, or anybody or anything else that could help us."**

"**What? But I want to come with you!"**

"**I knew this wouldn't work," Sonic muttered under his breath. "Amy, don't you care about Tails?"**

"**Of course I do, but if I come with you I can still help you find him."**

"**Okay," Sonic said, his tone sounding a little less annoyed. "Just so long as you don't get in the way, all right?"**

"**Alright! Let's go!"**

**_Boy, Knuckles is going to hate this, _Sonic thought. _Speaking of Knuckles, I wonder where he is right now?_**

"**All right Knuckles, we'll be sure to keep our eyes out for Tails," Vector said. Knuckles had finally found them walking around Station Square. They were buying new detective equipment, but abandoned the idea and headed back to their residence with Knuckles. "No charge, since I know who you are."**

"**I wouldn't pay you anyway. Sonic's the one who started this whole deal, not me."**

"**So, where are you and Sonic going to look?"**

"**Anywhere we can, and I want you to do the same. We really don't have any hints as to where Tails might be, so all we can do for now is search the area."**

"**Okay, we'll start by searching underground, and work our way up from there."**

"**Tails was captured underground. I doubt he's still down there."**

"**Well, you say Eggman has a base down there, according to Sonic," Espio said. He hadn't said anything the whole time; he had just listened. "He could very well be keeping Tails down there. If you want, we could look underground for you."**

"**No, it would be easier for me and Sonic to go underground because we know where Eggman's factory is."**

"**We'll search the sewers then!" Vector volunteered.**

"**Um, we will?" Espio asked. He, like anyone else, wasn't very fond of running around in other people's waste.**

"**Espio, we're doing this for Tails!"**

"**Right!" Charmy chimed in, "It'll be an adventure, Espio! Time to have some fun!"**

"**I don't exactly call a sewer fun, Charmy," Espio said dully.**

**Charmy, who was paying no attention to Espio's comment, was already headed straight for the door. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's do it! Let's go!"**

"**We're not going on any adventures until we find Sonic and tell him the plan," Knuckles said calmly, walking to the door and pulling Charmy back.**

"**Aw, but I'm bored! Besides, I thought you wanted to find Tails fast."**

"**I do, because I'm planning on finding the Master Emerald along the way. If you guys see it, I want to know about it. Got it?"**

"**Whatever you say, Knuckles," Vector said. "Now you go find Sonic and we'll get ready to go!"**

"**I'm doing an awful lot of finding today!" Knuckles muttered as he walked out the door. "You guys, be ready when I come back."**

"**I'm ready now!" Charmy complained.**

"**Shut up, Charmy!" Vector yelled.**

**Knuckles shook his head as he closed the door behind him. "What was Sonic thinking?"**

"**Knuckles should be at Vector's place by now. Hopefully he already talked to them." Sonic said.**

"**You're getting help from them, too?" Amy asked.**

"**You got it. I got about half of the city to say they'd watch for Tails and Eggman too."**

"**Wow! It's a good thing you can run fast. It'd take me all day to get through half of the city."**

"**I haven't been to the Chaotix place in a while, but I think it's safe to say it's somewhere around here," Sonic said as he turned a corner.**

"**Sonic, could you… slow down a bit?" Amy said, breathing hard and struggling to stay somewhat caught up with the hedgehog.**

"**No time, Amy. Grab my hand."**

**Amy didn't hesitate. She took hold of Sonic's hand and Sonic sped up. "Wow, I wish I could go as fast as you, Sonic!"**

"**Well, you are right now, aren't you?"**

"**Only 'cause you're pulling me."**

"**Hey look! There's Knuckster."**

"**Sonic!" He called. "Come on this way. I found them."**

**Sonic slowed down and followed Knuckles to the Chaotix Detective Agency. Without knocking, Sonic invited himself inside and waved to Vector, Espio, and Charmy. "Hey guys, long time no see. I take it Knux already told you about Tails?"**

"**Yup," The three said in unison. **

"**We agreed we would search underground first since Eggman has a base down there," Knuckles explained.**

"**Sounds good. Well, since everything is already figured out, let's go! Cream's searching the city with Cheese already, so we don't have to worry about that."**

"**And we're going in the sewers while you three see if you can find anything beyond that old factory Eggman has," Espio explained to Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy.**

"**Hey, uh, Sonic? Why's Amy coming with us anyway?" Knuckles whispered quiet enough so that Amy wouldn't hear.**

"'**Cause she feels like it," Sonic whispered back. "You know you don't want to argue with her!"**

"**I heard that!" Amy snapped. "If you don't want me to come, you should say so!"**

"**We don't want you to come." Knuckles said.**

"**Well, too bad!"**

"**So much for that!" Sonic said to Knuckles. "Look, I already told her she could come if she didn't get in the way. Sorry Knuck, a deal's a deal. I don't want to put her in danger any more than you do, but—"**

"**That's not the reason I don't want her here!" Knuckles said, cutting him off. "She's an annoying pest!"**

"**That too, but—"**

"**Enough," Espio said calmly. "You are wasting your time arguing over something so pointless. Let the girl come if she wishes. Let's get going."**

**There were slurred mumbles of "Alright…" from everyone as they walked out the door. The negativity of this was more because they were worried about Tails, although Sonic and Knuckles were slightly annoyed at Amy's presence with them. Sonic wasn't annoyed at Amy because he knew that she would pester him and chase him around because she liked him, he was annoyed at her because she would constantly pester him and chase him around when she knew they had something more important to do. For once, Sonic wished Amy would just focus on helping him. And maybe, if she really liked him, she would figure this out and try to actually help him. But right now she just seemed to be a major annoyance. Sonic pushed this thought out of his mind and continued thinking of ways to find Tails in his head. _I hope he'll be alright. I don't want to see anything bad happen to him._**

"**Sonic, I'm sure Tails will be okay," Amy said to him. Sonic hadn't realized he had spoken his thoughts aloud.**

"**Geez Sonic," Knuckles said as he looked over at him. "I've never seen you this down before. Usually you're all cocky and annoying.**

"**Eggman's never captured him before. Nor did he seem so serious about it."**

"**Sonic, if you let your worries discourage you then we'll never find him!" Amy said, turning to face Sonic.**

"**Calm down, Amy! I'll be okay, I'm just a bit upset over this, that's all. I mean, I wouldn't be as worried if Eggman hadn't been so sincere, or made Tails pass out when he hit him. I know he's dangerous and all, but he's never done anything like that."**

"**He does have a point," Espio said.**

**After a few minutes of silence as they kept walking, Vector said, "Hey, I see a sewer hole! C'mon, Espio, Charmy, let's go."**

"**Right behind you."**

"**Yay!"**

"**Well Sonic, I guess the three of us should go back to where I pulled you out of the factory and go back in."**

"**Okay, let's do it!" Sonic said. "C'mon Amy, Knuckles, it's time to find Tails!" He grabbed one of their hands with each of his and zipped forward, giving the three greater speed as they headed back towards the desert. "We're on our way, Tails," he said, just barely above a whisper.**


	9. Chapter 9: Back in the Factory

I want to thank tailslover666 and Professor Ken for reviewing. They've been my only reviewers so far, and they both said positive things about the story. Thanks, you two rock!

Okay, onto Chapter Nine!

**Chapter 9: Back in the Factory**

"**Hey Espio! Want to come and swim with me?" Charmy yelled from the sewer water.**

"**Ugh… I'll pass." Espio said, disgusted. "And don't you touch me until you've cleaned yourself up! Don't you know where that water's been?"**

"**No."**

"**That was a rhetorical question, but—"**

**Vector cut him off and finished the sentence. "Down people's throats and out their bladders! Now get out of the water!"**

"**Ew… Why didn't you guys tell me that before?"**

"**You guys," Espio said, "We should be searching for Tails, not arguing over whether we want to go swimming in someone else's crap or not!"**

"**Espio's right." Vector agreed. "Let's pay attention to anything that could help us rather than arguing."**

"**Somehow I don't think Tails is down here, though," Espio said.**

"**Why not?"**

"**I don't know… A sewer seems like an odd place to take a captive."**

"**You may have a point, Espio."**

"**Does that mean we're going back above ground?" Charmy asked.**

"**No, we said we'd search here first, and that's what we're going to do!" Vector said. That was enough to close the case.**

"**Man, I wish we could go as fast as Sonic!" Charmy complained. "This is boring now!"**

"**Yeah," Vector said, "It's sure be easier to get from A to B."**

**Meanwhile, Sonic still had his hands fastened around Knuckles's and Amy's hand. His grip was harder than he had originally intended it to be, but he wasn't paying much attention to it. He was thinking ahead for once, and the thoughts going through his mind were making his hands tense.**

"**Sonic, you're cutting off my circulation," Knuckles said dryly.**

**If Sonic hadn't loosened his grip that tiniest bit, you wouldn't have known he was paying attention. It was like Knuckles's words were skipping going to the brain and just going right to his hand. They were, in a way. Sonic's mind was on Tails, and only Tails. Tails meant a lot to Sonic. He had never seen him being physically harmed so badly and then captured by Eggman before. He didn't know why Eggman wanted Tails, and he intended to rescue him before he found out the hard way. Sonic couldn't even imagine a reason, besides trying to lure him into another trap. Maybe that was it, but even so, he'd already attacked Sonic and Tails several times before actually capturing Tails… If he wanted to trap Sonic, why didn't he just do it then and there? _Well Eggman may be smart, but he never was a bright one… _Sonic thought, …_maybe he just didn't realize that._**

"**Hey Sonic, slow down!" That was Knuckles. Unlike Sonic, he was paying attention. "I see the top of the factory!"**

**Sonic felt slightly guilty about getting so lost in thought about Tails that he wasn't even paying attention to something that would help him _find _Tails. He gradually slowed his speed; he didn't want to stop to fast and send Knuckles and Amy flying. "Where?"**

**Knuckles ignored Sonic and ran backwards a few paces, then used his hand to wipe away some sand, revealing a small part of what looked like a huge metal floor (or if you were in the factory below it, a ceiling).**

"**Cool! Punch us through, Knuckster!"**

**Knuckles ignored the nickname Sonic had given him (he'd get Sonic for that later) and slammed both fists into the metal, creating a hole that Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles slid through and landed on top of one of Eggman's robot assembly machines. They jumped to the ground from there.**

"**So this is where Tails was captured, huh?" Amy asked as she looked around, slightly nervous. "It sure is quiet in here."**

"**So now what?" Knuckles asked, looking at Sonic.**

**Usually, Sonic always had an idea when he needed it, but despite the fact that he hadn't taken his mind off Tails, he had no idea if there was another path or room after the factory. It was when Knuckles asked what they should do now that Sonic realized he should be thinking up a plan—that was the only way they were ever going to save Tails. "Uh, to be honest I'm not really sure. Tails and I didn't see any other doors, but then again, we didn't exactly have the time to look."**

"**Great, so we came down here just so you could say you have exactly no idea what to do next, correct?"**

"**Ah, lighten up buddy, I'll figure something out."**

**Knuckles leaned over toward Amy and whispered in her ear, "Just for the record, we're not buddies. Got it?"**

"**Keeping secrets makes no friends, Knucklehead," Sonic said. How he heard what Knuckles said, Amy or Knuckles weren't sure.**

"**I'm not your friend anyway, Sonic," Knuckles said.**

"**Oh why, would it ruin your pride? Why don't you just admit it, I'm not all that bad. You're just too proud to say so."**

**In the back of Knuckles's mind, he actually had a fair amount of respect for the hedgehog. Showoff, yes. Annoying, yes. Full of himself, yes. But Knuckles knew he was more than that. Sometimes Sonic had shown more courage that he himself could have, or got himself out of situations that would be difficult for him. Deep down Knuckles knew he couldn't compare to the amount of determination and self-confidence that Sonic had, but he would never, NEVER, let Sonic know that. Okay, so maybe he could consider Sonic his 'buddy' for the time being in the privacy of his own mind. If they were going to have any success in finding Tails or the Master Emerald, they had to cooperate at the very least. **

"**Hey Sonic!" Amy said. She pointed off in the distance. "Is that a door?"**

"**It looks like it. I didn't see it before. Then again, I couldn't exactly see everything in here with all the smoke. Let's go."**

**As they walked toward the door, it automatically opened, and they walked through. The caves didn't look like caves anymore, they just looked like factory hallways. "This must be where Egghead took Tails!" Sonic said. "He's _got _to be somewhere down here."**

**The hallways seemed to go on forever. It was a full hour before anyone noticed this. "Uh, guys, these hallways don't seem to go straight. Did you ever stop to think that maybe we're going around in circles?"**

"**But Knuckles, if we were going in circles we'd have seen the factory again. It may be leading us in another direction but at least it's leading us somewhere."**

**They kept going. "Hey is that… one of Eggman's robots?" Amy inquired.**

**Sonic followed her gaze. "Yep. That's his all right. You two, stay back. I'll take care of that!" Sonic ran up ahead as Knuckles and Amy stopped. They watched as the robot opened fire. Sonic dodged every attack by zooming around in random directions. He stopped behind the robot and tapped it. The robot turned, but Sonic was gone by the time it's eyes hit the spot. Sonic came up behind the robot again, but followed through with his attack. Chunks of metal came raining down in the area, and Sonic ran back towards Amy and Knuckles.**

"**Sonic…"**

"**Oh brother…" Sonic muttered under his breath.**

"**Sonic! That was amazing!" She threw her arms around Sonic and held him in a tight hug.**

"**Amy, get off! I can't breathe!"**

**When Amy refused to loosen her hold, Sonic grabbed her arms and pried them off his neck. He held her in place for a moment, then let go, letting out a relieved breath.**

**After a few minutes more of walking through the endless tunnel, Sonic felt a rumbling beneath his feet. "Not again…"**

**All three of them screamed as the ground beneath them broke through, and they fell down into the darkness.**

**Knuckles awoke first. He looked over at Sonic and Amy, who were still unconscious. Amy had just _happened _to fall right on top of Sonic when he landed. What a coincidence. Knuckles laughed as he pictured Amy trying to land on top of Sonic. "He makes a good landing pad."**

**Just then, Amy awoke. She rolled off Sonic and stood up, somewhat unsteadily. "Knuckles? Where are we? Where'd we land?"**

"**I think it's a sewer. Look at all the dirty water over there."**

"**Isn't that where Espio and Charmy and Vector went to look?" **

"**Yeah. Man, at least there's cement on the edges of this sewer. You couldn't pay me to walk in that slush."**

"**It's a good thing we didn't land in it."**

"**You don't say."**

"**How come Sonic's not awake yet?"**

"**How should I know? I'm not a doctor. My best guess would be that he landed on his head or something. If that's the case, it'll probably be a while before he wakes up. Now let's go."**

"**We can't leave Sonic, though!"**

"**Yeah, you're right. Hey why don't you carry him?"**

"**Okay!" Amy said, sounding a bit too eager. She attempted to heave Sonic over her shoulder, but failed miserably. "I can't pick him up! I'm not strong enough!"**

"**No, I think Sonic's not light enough. That's the problem. Move, I'll get him." Knuckles pushed Amy out of the way and reluctantly picked Sonic up, heaving him roughly over his shoulder. "I've always wanted to do this," Knuckles said dryly.**

"**SONIC! KNUCKLES! GET OVER HERE! WE FOUND HIM! WE FOUND HIM!" Knuckles and Amy stopped dead in their tracks. It was Charmy, yelling to them from a distance.**

"**Where are you? Who did you find? Tails?" Knuckles yelled.**

"**Tails?" Sonic echoed, suddenly awake.**

"**Oh, just fancied napping over my shoulder until something interesting happened, eh, Sonic?"**

"**No! I swear I just woke up when I heard you say Tails!"**

**Knuckles wasn't convinced. Truth be told, Sonic had just been coming to when he heard Tails's name being said.**

**Just realizing that he was over Knuckles's shoulder, Sonic abruptly slid off and ran toward the direction of the yell. "Charmy? Where are you?"**

"**Missed a turn!"**

**Sonic turned around immediately and turned a corner. There were the Chaotix. Behind them were Eggman and Tails.**

**Sonic raced right past Charmy, Espio, and Vector and only came to a halt when he was right in front of Eggman's hovercraft. Floating slightly above Sonic's reach, Eggman was inside it, holding Tails on the edge. Knuckles and Amy stopped behind Sonic.**

"**We want Tails back, Eggman!" Amy yelled.**

"**You'll have to come get him yourself! You three are such fools! Did you actually think I would bring you Tails so you could take him away from me?"**

"**What do you mean?" Sonic said quickly, patience thinning.**

"**We're holograms! Hahaha! I fooled all of you!"**

"**Eggman, wherever you are I know you can hear me!"**

"**Of course I can! Holograms don't talk, idiot! Of course this is Eggman talking! I can say anything I want to you and you can't hurt me now! I'm such a genius. Enough talk! If you want to find the real Tails, you'll have to defeat this robot first!" The holograms of Eggman and Tails vanished. A robot about seven feet tall appeared in front of them, heavily armored. Nobody moved though.**

"**Eggman snatched Tails so he could lure me into his traps!" Sonic realized. "Hehehe… Well let's just see how long he can stay in the game!"**

**Sonic ran toward the robot and jumped at it's center, slamming it hard with his feet. It fell backwards and skidded along the ground. Amy took out her hammer and charged at the robot. She hit it with all her might, and knocked it into the sewer water. It exploded.**

"**Egghead's not very bright, is he? He creates a robot that's not waterproof for a place like this? That's pretty pathetic if you ask me," Sonic said.**

"**Let's get out of this disgusting place." Espio said. Everyone nodded their agreement and followed Espio to a ladder and they climbed out.**

Okay, that's Chapter 9! Ten is coming up shortly, and you'll finally see some of Tails again, on Eggman's… okay I'm gonna stop, don't want to spoil it now, do we?

**Also **if you've read this and not reviewed, could you please take a minute to do so? I've only had two reviewers so far. I just want to know there's some people interested in the story.


	10. Chapter 10: Eggman's Plan

I got over 500 hits, but only two reviews? Come on! Somebody else, review please!

Sigh Okay, on to chapter 10.

**Chapter 10: Eggman's plan**

**Tails sat in a small cell in the Black Hawk, Eggman's newest flying fortress. It wasn't a dirty scum-encrusted hole, but it wasn't the most pleasant place in the world either. At least it was sanitary, though. He had been there for the last two days, since Eggman had captured him. "Let me outta here, Egghead! Let me out now!" Tails screamed, but it was of no use. Eggman was back in the pilot room. Tails hit the bars of the cell with all his might, but couldn't get out. He might as well have tried to drown himself in air. "Oh, what's the use? I can't get out of here anyway. What does Eggman want with me, anyway? I mean, he doesn't want to kill me because he could've done that already if he wanted. So why'd he have to throw me in here?"**

**Just then, a robot walked up to his cell and pressed a button that was out of Tails' reach. He heard a click as the bars moved slightly. Were they opening?**

**Tails looked back at the robot. It was silver and green, and looked somewhat like Omega or Gamma, only it was a lot smaller and had no weapons attached. The bars rose, but Tails remained stationary. "The doctor wishes to see you," the robot said in a monotone voice. It didn't look all that threatening. It looked more like an assistant robot created for, well, reasons like this.**

"**No!" Tails snapped back.**

"**The doctor wishes to see you immediately." The robot repeated, in a slightly annoyed but still monotone voice.**

"**Uh-huh! I'm not going nowhere!"**

"**Wouldn't that mean you are going somewhere?"**

"**I'm not going _any_where! Now lea' me alone."**

"**I have no choice. Doctor's orders." The robot reached for Tails, but he moved out of the way.**

"**Not going!" Tails protested. The robot reached for Tails faster this time. Tails moved out of the way, but the bot still managed to grab one of his namesakes. "Ah! No, leave me alone! I won't go with you! No! No…" Tails hollered at the top of his lungs the whole time the robot dragged him to the pilot room. "Hey, let go of me! What does the doctor want with me anyway?"**

"**Stop resisting me and you will find out when we see him. Now shut up and stop moving. You are wearing out my circuits."**

"**Well, good! Now tell me what Eggman's up to!"**

"**I have been given orders to keep it in supreme secrecy. You must ask him yourself."**

"**I don't want to find out the hard way, thank you! Now LET ME GO!" Tails was screaming louder and louder. It was more from impatience than fear, though, although he was worried about what Eggman was going to do to him.**

**Finally, when they were right outside the door, Tails managed to free himself by using his free tail to spin and attack the robot. He sliced the robot's hand clear off, and ran like there was no tomorrow, spinning his namesakes for more speed.**

**He had no idea where to hide though. Was there a way to get off of this thing? It was so huge; at _least _five times the size the Egg Carrier had been. The ground he managed to cover was only about one twentieth of the whole fortress. When he got to tired and decided to stop for a break, he ran into another room that, to his unfortunate surprise, was full of security cameras. "Okay… bad idea…" As he made a swift exit, he realized that the hallway he was running down was full of security cameras. "Oh, great! He's watching me. Now what do I do?" With not many options, Tails continued running for another minute or so… when he came to a dead end. He abruptly turned around and headed back the other way. **

"**Oh no! Eggman must've saw me and sent robots to attack!" There were five security robots blocking his path, and they were ready to fire. Desperate, Tails spun his namesakes and flew above them. He punched out security cameras as he headed back in the other direction, but he already knew it was too late. Eggman had definitely seen him by now. **

**He dropped to the floor and pressed a button. It opened a door, and he walked in. He wasn't aware of the fact that the door had closed behind him, though. He was in another room now, with no security cameras and no robots. All that was in the dimly lit area was a… bed? It looked something like a bed to Tails. One of those beds doctors put you on to examine you: square, plain, and with a white sheet of paper going across it (okay, there was no paper on this one). It wasn't anything much, but it was enough to make Tails comfortable for the time being. He jumped up on the 'bed' and laid down. Metal cuffs that closed themselves around Tails' arms, legs, and tails caught the fox by surprise. "What? I can't get out!"**

"**Of course you can't. You didn't think I was going to let you get away, did you?" Eggman said as the door opened again and revealed a familiar egg-shaped human. They were the only two in the room now. Eggman pressed a button on the wall that Tails hadn't noticed before. A small section of the wall opened to reveal a few weapons and a small, flat piece of metal with little lines going through it. Tails immediately recognized it as a computer memory chip.**

**Eggman grabbed a small pocket knife and the memory chip. He set them both on Tails' chest and was silent for a few moments as Tails stared at them in fear. He was brave when he was able to maneuver and find his way out of things, but it was a different story now that he was trapped in a room with Eggman and a knife. Those two things weren't a good combination. "Now Tails," he said in a threateningly calm voice, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I'm going to let you go if you tell me one thing."**

"**Liar," Tails said, trying his best to sound fearless. He failed miserably, as his voice was shaking.**

"**What was that?"**

"**Liar! You're just saying that so you can get what you want! You're pathetic! If you think I'm going to tell you anything, then try me! I dare you!"**

"**As you wish." Eggman said. His patience was thinning, but he had to stay calm if he was going to get what he wanted. "I want to tell you where the last two Chaos Emeralds are. And if you don't…" Eggman grabbed the knife and put the sharp end against Tails' chest, applying a bit of pressure to get the point across. Tails winced, but didn't speak nevertheless. Unbeknownst to Sonic or Eggman, Tails had the other two Chaos Emeralds in his workshop. He was keeping them hidden in case Eggman came after them. "Well?" Eggman said loudly, pressing on the knife slightly harder. Tails didn't wince this time. He was too full of rage to feel defeated or afraid right now. Sonic had helped him so many times, and now he was going to help Sonic by keeping his secret, no matter what it took. Eggman's fortress was already big and powerful enough with five Chaos Emeralds. If Eggman had all seven and was able to keep them out of Sonic's reach, he could easily kill Sonic by simply launching one weapon from the massive ship.**

"**I won't tell," Tails said in a whisper.**

"**Pardon?"**

"**I… I won't tell you."**

**Eggman pushed harder yet. Tails let out a whimper of pain. "Pardon?" He asked again.**

"**You heard me! I won't let you hurt Sonic!"**

**That was enough for Eggman. He drew back the knife and swiped it across Tails' chest. He let out a loud cry, more from fear and surprise than pain. It didn't hurt that bad. In fact, it wasn't even that deep of a gash, and was barely bleeding. Perhaps it was just a warm-up.**

**Eggman reached for the memory chip. "This is your last chance. You tell me now, or else!"**

**Tails was a mechanical genius, but he didn't know what this memory chip was for. "Not gonna tell you!" Tails snapped. His voice was a mix of rage and pure terror.**

"**Very well." Eggman pushed the knife into Tails' right arm, slowly so Tails was sure to feel the pain. He dragged it across, creating a very small, yet very deep gash across the top of Tails' arm. Tails screamed this time. He couldn't hold it back. The pain seemed to last an hour, but in reality only took about fifteen seconds. When Eggman pulled the knife out, his arm bled mercilessly onto the bed, which in Tails mind, had now earned the name "Torture trap."**

**Eggman then took the memory chip and slid it into the gash on Tails' arm.**

**_Oh man, I know what that is now! It's a memory chip from one of his robots! If that chip hits one of the nerves in my arm, a message will be carried to the central nervous system and then onto my brain that I'm an… Eggman robot! _Tails thought, defeated. He struggled to yank his arm out of the metal cuff, but it only brought on more pain, so he immediately stopped.**

"**Eggman, stop it… please…"**

"**Only if you tell me."**

**Tails couldn't decide. If he told Eggman about the other two Chaos Emeralds, he would find them and use them to defeat Sonic! If he didn't tell Eggman, then the robot memory chip would cause him to believe he's an Eggman robot. What should he do?**

"**Won't tell…" Tails said quietly. The immense pain and high blood loss was causing him to slowly pass out.**

**Eggman threw the knife behind him. "I won't hurt you anymore, promise!"**

"**I don't trust you… Eggman…."**

**Truth be told, Eggman felt slightly bad for the six-year-old fox. He was going through so much to save his friend. Even he had to admit, Tails was pretty tough. Two gashes with a knife was quite a bit of pain for a six-year-old, and not a single tear had come to the fox's eyes. Plus, Eggman wasn't used to being quite this mean. He didn't often hurt people like this unless it was Sonic. He didn't want pain or death, he just wanted to rule the world. But in order to do that, he'd have to get rid of Sonic.**

"**Sonic… I'm doing this for you…" Tails said to himself quietly. "I hope you don't come near this fortress. If it lands… He'll kill you…. Don't take advantage of my sacrifice…" Tails truly thought he was about to die, when he suddenly opened his eyes and was wide awake. The two cuts stopped bleeding. His eyes had some sort of gleam in them that wasn't there before. This was when Eggman knew that the robot memory chip had worked.**

"**Tails!" he said.**

"**Yes, master?" He asked. He still sounded like himself. He wasn't a robot, he was just tricked into thinking he was. He was still Tails, still was smart and technical, but thanks to the chip, he was on Eggman's side.**

**Inside, Eggman was laughing evilly. "Tails. I want Sonic dead, you hear me? I want him to be killed, no matter what it takes. You can do it yourself, or with your mechanical know-how, you can create robots to help you. I don't care how; you can even land this fortress if you wish. In fact, I will let you pilot now that you are on my team."**

"**Affirmative, sir," Tails said.**

"**Now, get ready! As I said, I want Sonic dead, and I want him dead within the next week. Kill him!"**

"**Yes, master!"**

There's Chapter 10, hope you liked it. One of the more violent ones if you ask me. The rating may go up in later chapters. PLEASE leave a review if you've read this.


	11. Chapter 11: Knuckles' Plan

**Thanks to all who have reviewed so far, especially the three who reviewed chapter 10! Here's chapter 11, and I think I'm going to start responding to reviews on these pages soon since I'm actually getting some now.**

**CHAPTER 11: The Plan**

Sonic, Knuckles, Espio, Charmy, and Vector had just arrived back at the Chaotix Detective Agency… house/headquarters/place of residence. They were seated on couches, sipping at tea or pop while casually discussing the current situation.

"Okay, so Eggman's tricking us. He's getting us to go after holograms so he can stall for time… which usually means he's planning something big. Even I know that much."

"That's obvious knucklehead. We figured that much out already. I could've sworn you were there… but we need to—"

"Seriously, Sonic! You're not the only one who cares about Tails, you know! I do too, and I'm trying my best to help him and put up with you at the same time. That's not easy! I've been trying not to annoy the daylights out of you so we can save time. I'm doing it so we can help Tails! I'd appreciate it if you did the same thing for once, but no! You can't do anything but call me by my nicknames and insult me! I've been patient long enough, so you can either get serious or I'll leave and find the Master Emerald myself! I thought you cared a little more about Tails then to be so immature about a situation like this! You make your decision now, or I'm outta here!"

Sonic was taken aback. He didn't see that one coming. No one said anything for about three minutes. Sonic just stared at the floor for that time. Then Knuckles' words hit home. "You're right Knux—Knuckles… I'm sorry. You're right, I should be taking this more seriously. My best buddy is at the mercy of Eggman right now, and I'm just wasting time. I'm not immature, really. I'm just trying really hard to be as optimistic as I usually am about things. But that's the thing. I have to _try. _I just don't feel like myself. But sitting around moping won't save Tails. Guys, we have to come up with something. I don't know where Tails is, but we have to find out. I don't know how, but we have to."

"That's more like it," Knuckles said. He didn't say it with frustration, though. He said it more as an encouragement, simply because he could tell Sonic was trying hard to stay calm and stay on track.

Sonic looked over at him for a split second and quickly made a thumbs-up sign. "I know, I can't be like this. We all have to stay focused and not think about the bad things that could happen." Sonic was standing up now, and it was easy to tell that his cockiness and confidence were returning to him, and he wasn't forcing it either. "Vector, Espio, Charmy, I'm leaving it to you to find out where Tails is. Find some way to track him or Eggman down—hologram or not. Anything we find helps. You can look physically, make some sort of long-distance radar, whatever. I don't care. Just try to find out where Tails or Eggman are, or find out anything else that might help. Me and Knuckles'll… we'll…"

"Hey Sonic, I know what we can do, I have an idea." Knuckles said, seeing that Sonic was failing to come up with a bright idea for once.

Sonic was about to say, "That's a first," but decided against it immediately. "Yeah? Whatcha got in mind Knuckles?"

"Couldn't we take the Tornado? We'd be able to see a lot more from up high."

"I'd love to say yes, Knuckles, but the Tornado's… well… it needs to be fixed. It's in the desert."

"Is it damaged?" Espio asked.

"Yeah, you could probably say that…" Sonic replied.

"How many times are we going to have to go back to this desert, Sonic?" Knuckles asked, slightly annoyed.

"As many times as we have to."

"Anyway," Vector chimed in, "What are you two going to do well we try to track down Tails?"

"Well, we should probably repair the Tornado. I've picked up some of Tails' mechanical skills, so I should be able to figure out a way to fix it. Actually fixing it on the other hand…"

"I'll take a look at it and see what I can do." Espio volunteered. "I'm not as technical as the fox but I may have the know-how to fix it if the damage is minor."

"I don't know about minor, Espio, but just do what you can."

"Lead me to it."

"Okay, follow me."

"What am I supposed to do?" Knuckles asked.

"Come over here and make yourself useful!" Vector called to him from across the room. "You could at least tell us some more about what happened."

Knuckles shrugged and walked in Vector's direction.

"Well, Sonic? Let's not waste time."

"Right!"

Sonic and Espio exited the building and headed towards the outskirts of Station Square.

"Well, Vector?" Knuckles said.

"Hey, don't I get to help with anything?" Charmy asked. "Where am I in this wonderful plan, huh?"

"You'll come in handy, Charmy, but for now just be quiet while me and Knuckles figure some things out."

"Ohhh, but I'm—"

"Charmy," Vector warned.

"Fine! I'll shut up."

"That's more like it."

"Do you have anything in mind, Vector?"

"You bet! I'm a detective, and detectives have equipment! Follow me."

"Hey, if we're going out exploring I'm not hauling a machine gun the whole way! My fists are enough for me, thank you."

"I'm not talking about that!" Vector opened a door. There were gadgets, guns, and other cool detective things. He walked inside the big storage room. "Just gotta find it… Wait… here it is!" Vector pulled a small square screen about the size of a handheld game out of a box.

"What's that little contraption?" Knuckles asked, more by instinct than interest.

"A radar! You think we spies don't have stuff like this ready to go?"

Knuckles didn't respond.

"Anyway," Vector continued, "It's the only radar we've got right now and it only has a two-mile range. We'll have to walk around a bit, but it'll make things easier.

"Okay, then what are we waiting for? Let's get started."

"Charmy, c'mon. We may need you to lift us up to higher places."

"Correction," Knuckles said immediately, "He'll lift _you _up. I'm not holding onto the feet of a six-year-old, immature…"

"Whatever, let's just go!" Charmy said excitedly. He raced out the front door, followed by Vector and Knuckles.

"This feels so pointless! Not that I'm giving up or anything, but we're walking around a city basically doing nothing!" Knuckles said. "It may not seem like it, but I do care about the little guy, and I'm not going to waste my time. I'll go look for him myself. Catch up to you guys later."

"But Knuckles—"

"You guys, I'm going to find Sonic. I have something important to tell him about all this, anyway."

"Knuckles, we have to work as a team!" Vector protested.

"We are! Seriously though, I just thought of something that could really help us out and Sonic has to know about it!"

"Tell us!" Charmy demanded.

"What're you gonna do if I don't?" Knuckles said. When they were both silent, Knuckles waved a hand and turned to walk away.

Actually, the reason Knuckles hadn't told them was simply because they would have no idea what he meant. After all, they had no knowledge of many of the things Chaos Emeralds—and the Master Emerald—could really do.

"There it is! Finally!" Sonic said, pointing at a blue biplane off in the distance.

"It's about time."

Sonic and Espio stopped in front of the damaged machine. They had been searching for about half of an hour. Luckily for Sonic, Espio was exceptionally fast, so he didn't have to go too much slower than usual.

"Tails told me after we crash landed that the engine didn't seem to be in too bad of shape. It think it's just the wing we need to fix, and maybe a couple of other little things."

"Like I said, I'm not as smart as Tails, but I think I can fix it."

"That would be great. You do that while I go see if Knuckles and the rest found out anything."

"Sonic, what happened to Amy? Wasn't she with us?"

"Yeah. She told me she was going to find Cream so she could help her look around. Looks like she's actually taking this seriously."

"What made you think she wasn't?"

"Well, usually she always follows me around no matter what. I guess when she saw I was acting more serious, she'd better do the same."

"Cream's helping, too?"

"Yep. Everyone who can is. They all care about Tails."

"At least you won't have to worry to much about Amy bugging you."

"Thank god for that…" Sonic muttered not quite under his breath. "Well, I'm going to find Knuckster. See ya later Espio."

Espio raised a hand and attempted to tell Sonic to wait, but by the time he started talking Sonic was about a quarter of a mile away already. "Great. I can fix it, but I never said I could fly it."

Sonic was nearing the city. He rushed through the buildings for a few minutes, hoping he would see Knuckles, Vector, Amy, anyone—on the other side of one. He turned left out of an alleyway and found himself slamming right into Knuckles. They both went flying in the direction Sonic had been going. Knuckles landed right on top of Sonic and they skidded on the cement before finally coming to a stop about fifty feet away from where Sonic had ran into Knuckles.

Still on top of Sonic, Knuckles adjusted himself and put his hands on Sonic's shoulders, shaking him. "It's about time! I thought you were a little faster than that! And watch where you're going!"

Sonic groaned. "Ugh…Relax will ya? I was just trying to find you.

"I've been trying to find you all afternoon!"

"What's so important?"

"Sonic, if we find the Master Emerald before we find Tails, we can use it to our advantage!"

That was all Knuckles had to say. Sonic understood completely. If they managed to get the Master Emerald, which would probably be easier to find than Tails, they could use it to actually see where he was. All Knuckles had to do was concentrate on what he wanted to know, and, with any luck, they would find him using the Master Emerald to see his exact location. It was perfect!

"Alright, Knuckles! Sounds good. We can use that fake Chaos Emerald I have to find the Master Emerald. It worked when I tried to beat Eggman with it, and it was pretty powerful, too. If it works anything like a real Chaos Emerald, we should be able to use it to track down the Master Emerald, and then use the Master Emerald to track down Tails. I like it! Let's tell the others our plan."

"_My _plan, Sonic. And we have to let Espio fix the Tornado, too. So while he does that, we'll find the Master Emerald and Amy and Cream will keep searching the area."

"And hopefully by the time we need it… well, if we need it, the Tornado will be fixed."

"Okay, let's do it!"

"That's my line! Hey, where are Vector and Charmy? I thought you were going with them."

"I had to find you so I could tell you what I just got done telling you."

"What are they doing?"

"Attempting to find Tails with some crappy two-mile radar."

"In that case… let's go get that fake Chaos Emerald now and worry about them later."

"Where is it?"

"Let's see…I had it when Tails and I were in the factory, had it when you got me out, had it when we met with the Chaotix… I think I left it at their place."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get that Chaos Emerald and start looking. I'm tired of sitting around talking about what we're going to do. I'm ready to actually do it. Don't know about you."

"Yeah. We're just wasting time." That said, Sonic and Knuckles ran back towards the Chaotix house to get the Emerald.

They arrived. Sonic walked in and flicked on the lights. "I knew it!" Sure enough, the fake blue Chaos Emerald was set motionless on the table. Sonic snatched it.

"Here," Knuckles said, holding out a hand. Sonic gave him the Emerald and watched as Knuckles closed his eyes. The Emerald began to glow. Pretty realistic for a fake, Sonic thought. Yeah, we'll definitely find that Master Emerald with this.

If it was glowing, that meant they were already somewhat near it. All it would take was some searching. With Knuckles skilled at finding things and Sonic quick on his feet, this would be no problem.

**Kind of short, I know. The next chapter will be longer, I promise! I want to tell you about it, but I don't wanna spoil it… you'll just have to wait and see. The next chapter won't be until probably about two weeks because I'm going to Florida over Easter break. I'll update ASAP though. Thank you for reading. Please drop off a review on the way out! You'll hear more about Tails in a few more chapters.**


	12. Chapter 12: The Emerald is the Leader!

**Finally, after two and a half weeks! I'm really sorry about the long wait. The next ones won't take as long, promise! They're gonna be good ones, too. If you read please leave a review for me!**

CHAPTER 12: The Chaos Emerald is the Leader

"Uh-oh… I knew I wouldn't be any good at flying a biplane!"

After finally managing to fix it, Espio was flying the Tornado out of the desert. He was almost back to the city when he hit the wrong button and caused the plane to speed up dramatically and start spinning out of control through the air. He opened his eyes and dared to look down at the street that was rapidly rushing up to meet him, only to see Sonic and Knuckles racing by with the fake Chaos Emerald glowing in Sonic's hand. Fortunately, Sonic caught sight of the Tornado and told Knuckles to move out of the way; the Tornado looked just about ready for a crash landing right on top of them. Knuckles, however, ran right under the plane's shadow and followed it as it neared the ground.

Knuckles, what are you _doing?_" Sonic said. He himself did crazy things sometimes, but he never deliberately asked for death. What was Knuckles thinking?

"Watch and you'll find out!" He said, smirking but not looking at Sonic. He kept his gaze on the Tornado. It was getting closer. "Espio! Slow down as much as you can and head in this direction!"

The slowing down part failed, but Espio had angled the plane so that it was now coming straight down towards Knuckles. Perfect!

Knuckles braced himself and threw both of his powerful hands up above him as the Tornado made contact with them. "I got you, Espio..." Knuckles said through gritted teeth. "This plane's not getting damaged again!"

Sonic watched as Knuckles held the biplane above his head. He sure was strong, Sonic had to admit.

Once Knuckles had lowered the plane (not to mention Espio) safely to the ground, he and Espio climbed in the cockpit while Sonic jumped on the now repaired wing. "Wow, Espio. You're not a bad pilot. I would have been screaming, and I probably would have missed and slammed straight into the cement."

"Being calm is part of being a ninja," was all Espio had to say about it.

"Showoff," Knuckles muttered under his breath. "Hey Sonic, trade you spots. You're better at flying this thing than I am. It's your plane, after all."

Sonic jumped in the pilot's seat and Knuckles stood on the wing. Sonic often forgot that it was, in fact, his plane. Tails was usually the one piloting it, but he didn't mind at all. "Here Knuckles," Sonic said, tossing him the Emerald before closing the cockpit window. "You'll probably get a better signal outside. Just don't drop it, 'kay?"

"Emerald's vibrating already."

"What?"

"That Master Emerald's gotta be around here somewhere… Keep going towards that mountain on the outskirts of Station Square, that's the direction where this fake Emerald glows the strongest."

"Whoa, hold on! Do you see what I see, Knuckles?"

Knuckles followed Sonic's pointed finger. "Great. Just how many bases does that Egghead have?" Sonic said.

"I've never seen him without one."

Espio's radio beeped. He picked it up. "Is that you Vector?"

"No, Charmy. Guess what? We know where the Master Emerald is! We used our old radar in the basement to figure it out. I forgot we even had that ol' thing 'til Vector mentioned it."

"Ahem. The Emerald?"

"Oh yeah! It's in a base near a mountain on the outskirts of the city."

"That's where we're headed!"

"Great, keep it up! Next time, take me, though! Anyway, that Emerald's in this really dark and long hallway as far as the radar says."

"Okay, thanks Charmy. Does Vector know you found this?"

"Of course he does! He wouldn't let me work that radar alone. He says I'm too immature, whatever that means."

"It means you're an annoying squirt."

"Thanks a lot!" Charmy said, not sarcastically.

"We have to go, now Charmy. Keep updating us on anything you guys find, okay?"

"When am I going to get to go on an adventure?"

"Soon. Bye."

Espio turned the radio off and looked up, only to see missiles heading their way.

"Watch it, Sonic. Up there." Espio said.

"Missiles? Come on! We just got here!" Sonic descended the Tornado and began flying it right above the ground. "I'm gettin' off here, guys. Somebody take control of the plane and try to get through all these attacks. I'll search for an entrance at the bottom of this thing. You guys fly around the top and see what you can find."

"I guess I'll give it a try." Espio said as he climbed in the cockpit.

"Don't get into any trouble, Sonic," Knuckles said sarcastically.

"Watch me!" Sonic ran off toward the base.

"Espio, look out!" Knuckles yelled. Something was speeding through the air straight towards them.

"It's a bomb," Espio said. A bead of sweat dripped from his face. "Let's just hope I've had enough experience with the plane to get us out of this."

Knuckles, who was more familiar with Tails' plane than Espio, said, "Here, let me take over! Take the Emerald and switch places with me."

Espio jumped on the wing as Knuckles got in the cockpit. He immediately swerved to one side. To his unfortunate surprise, so did the bomb. "Oh, no! It's some sort of homing device! It's going to keep following us until something stops it."

Frantically, Knuckles began pressing the buttons he knew on the control panel. Lasers fired, missiles attacked, and shields went up. Knuckles and Espio watched as the smoke cleared. The homing bomb was still hot on their tail.

"Is that thing indestructable?" Knuckles yelled.

"It would appear that way."

"Espio! Hand me that Chaos Emerald, quick!" Espio opened the cockpit and did as commanded. Knuckles searched the control panel, and found a small, hexagon-shaped slot. "That's it." Knuckles inserted the Chaos Emerald. "Okay… now if I just press the shield button again…"

Knuckles pressed a blue button, and a huge blue mass of electricity stood guard at the front of the Tornado.

"You'd better hope this works," Espio said. The homing bomb hit the electric field and repelled back towards the giant base.

"Look at that building… Eggman's got some serious problems." Sonic said to himself. He was only a few hundred yards from the building now. It was shaped like Eggman's head.

"The heck with looking for a door!" Sonic said. He sped up and kept going straight. Without stopping, he jumped up in the air and slammed his foot into the side of the huge building, and hard. To Sonic, busting through metal was as simple as punching a hole in cardboard. His momentum forced him to keep running in order to maintain his balance, but very shortly Sonic caught sight of hundreds of lasers going from wall to wall. Knowing he was still going too fast to stop, Sonic turned around, only to find that there were now lasers behind him, too. Without much choice, Sonic turned around again and headed in the direction he had been going, trying his best to avoid the lasers. It was then that the thought occurred to him: Eggman was likely to be here, and if Eggman was here, Tails most likely was, too.

"Ah! Darn it!" Sonic said loudly as he ran straight through a laser. Alarms sounded all around him. Sonic froze; for once he didn't know what to do.

Bad choice. If he would have moved, he would have probably avoided that quick robot attack, not to mention literally being crushed under a giant block of ceiling that just _happened _to fall right on top of him. As he struggled to free himself from the piece of ceiling that had just landed on him, Sonic groaned a variety of very imaginative words that he had never heard himself say before. He hoisted the huge chunk of ceiling above his head and used it as a boomerang to slice through the robots blocking his path. He turned a corner only to be faced with a new challenge: A large metal door. Losing his patience and not even bothering to try using the handle, Sonic slammed into it and broke it down.

"Now, Sonic, is that any way to behave as a guest?" Eggman's voice echoed throughout the large hallway ahead of him.

"Where's Tails?" Sonic said, his voice dripping with venom.

"You would love to see, wouldn't you?"

"That depends. If you're smart enough to build huge machines and bases, I should think you'd be smart enough to know when you shouldn't challenge me. I thought you've figured that out by now."

"Me? Challenge you? Don't make me laugh! This is no challenge for me! You're no match for my next big idea!"

"Sure, I'm not."

"I mean it this time, Sonic!"

"Sure you do. You always do, but it doesn't change the fact that you always fail and you always will."

"You think so? Well get a taste of this!"

Not knowing what Eggman was talking about yet, but not thinking enough to care, Sonic spat, "Try me!" as nastily as he could.

"As you wish…!"

Something hit Sonic from behind, hard. He shot forward as doors in front of him opened automatically. Sonic looked over his shoulder to see that a spring had launched him. Sonic turned back around just in time to slam his face right into a dead end. Dazed and somewhat confused, Sonic followed his instincts and headed back in the direction he came from.

"Oh no, you don't!" A door slammed down behind Sonic. He was closed in.

Getting his senses back, Sonic looked up at Eggman again. I slammed through the first door, and I'll do it again." Sonic said. He spin dashed at the door, but didn't even make a dent.

"Hahaha—prepare to meet your death, Sonic!"

From the ceiling, water began slowly pouring on the ground. If Sonic couldn't get out of here, he would drown a slow, miserable death in about one hour. "Eggman… you better let me out of here!"

"Hahaha… what are you going to do about it if I don't? Huh?"

"In case you haven't noticed, you're trapped in here with me! And I know your precious life is worth more to you than my death."

"Of course it is, but who says I'm going to die, hedgehog?" Just then, Eggman and his robotic walker disappeared.

"Huh?" Sonic's tone changed from threatening to fear in an instant. "Water's rising… No, Sonic, don't think like that, just relax. Something good'll happen. You'll get out of this…" A few moments later, as Sonic was pondering how he could defeat Eggman, reality hit. "That Eggman that I just saw… was another hologram. He's using his holograms so he has more time to do whatever he's doing! And just how am I supposed to stop him and find Tails if I don't know which one is the real Eggman? Ah, I'll figure something out. All we have to do is find the Master Emerald! I can do that easily… but that's assuming I get out of here before I drown!" Sonic sighed. He wasn't going to give up, but he really didn't know what to do about this, either.

"Knuckles, let's land on there!" Espio said. He pointed at the top of the huge building. "We'll see if we can find any evidence of Eggman or Tails, or possibly a way inside."

"Why? Sonic's already in there."

"This base is huge. I would imagine that there are multiple floors. And as fast as he is, I highly doubt Sonic has been through the entire place already."

"The Emerald's glowing brighter! We must be close! Alright, I'll land us on the top!" Knuckles carried out his statement and they got off the Tornado. "The Emerald is starting to get hot. It must be within a hundred feet now!"

The two ran along the top of the base, trying to find an entrance. "Knuckles, are you noticing that we are starting to run downhill a little?"

"That's 'cause this place is shaped like Eggman's head, remember?"

Espio smiled. "A little full of himself."

"He's not the only one," Knuckles muttered under his breath.

"Hmph!"

"What? I was referring to Sonic."

Knuckles wasn't lying. He was referring to Sonic and Espio, so technically, what he said was true. Knuckles had never lied before in his life, and he didn't plan to (at least not fully).

"Knuckles, look below us!"

A section of the ground (or Eggman's head) about one hundred square yards below them was vibrating.

"We have to get off this thing!" Knuckles said. He shoved Espio forward and they ran towards ground that they assumed wasn't about to collapse on them. Espio, being the faster of the two, was able to run far enough to make a jump towards Eggman's nose on the building. Knuckles, however, didn't quite make it as the ground beneath him collapsed.

Knuckles landed in a pitch black hallway. Without much choice, he began walking and feeling his way around. Suddenly he saw a bright green glow. Wondering if this was good or bad, Knuckles quickened his pace. "Wait a minute…" Knuckles said as he got closer to the object. "That's the… Master Emerald!" Knuckles broke into a run. Wait… it's got to be a trap. Or… maybe this is just where Eggman's keeping it?" Knuckles sighed. "Should I take the chance?" He said to himself. He took another step towards the Master Emerald and touched it cautiously. Maybe it wasn't a trap after all…

"Oh man, now what?" The water was now at Sonic's chest. He had already tried spin dashing at the walls and door. He had made a dent in one of the walls, but what good would that do? They were metal, and his real goal was to break down the door so he could go back the way he came. Ten minutes later. The water was at his neck. Five minutes later. The water was almost up to his nose. It was still rising. Needless to say, Sonic was about to drown. "Get me out of this! Knuckles! Espio! Are you in hgggre ybggt?" The end of his sentence bubbled under the water and made absolutely no sence. Sonic tried to scream for help under the water, but failed miserably. Sonic closed his eyes. He couldn't hold his breath any longer. This was it. Less than one minute to live. Losing consciousness, Sonic closed his eyes just as he saw a huge circular dent pop out on the wall. He wondered what it was, but couldn't keep his eyes open long enough to find out.

The dent burst open, and she jumped into the water after her hero. "Sonic, I'm coming! Hang in there!"

But Sonic was no longer awake.

He awoke two hours later, wondering how he'd gotten outside. He pondered this for about two seconds, then started choking uncontrollably. He vomited up water and watched it soak into the ground. "Wow. Who knew so much water could fit in a person?"

"You're awake! It's about time!"

"Huh? Amy?" Sonic looked up. Her piko piko hammer was in her hand. So _that _was who he was rescued by. "You got me out?"

"Yes, and you're not easy to lift! You owe me one!"

"Thanks a lot, Amy!"

"Hey, I couldn't just let me hero drown, could I?"

"How'd you get here, anyway?"

"We followed you! We knew you wouldn't want us coming because you'd say we would get hurt, so we didn't let you know." That was Cream. She had come with Amy, along with her Chao, Cheese.

"I've got to go back in that building and help Knuckles and Espio find that Emerald!" Sonic said. He didn't want to waste any time. Somehow he felt that every second he wasted was causing Tails miserable torture. He had to find him before Eggman did something bad to him. He had to find him fast.

"Not so fast!"

"What now?"

"I'm not letting you get in trouble again."

"Amy, I'm going in."

"Not without us, and not without making a plan first."

"Okay, we go in, find the Master Emerald, find Knuckles and Espio, take Master Emerald, leave. Deal?"

Knuckles jerked his hand away from the Emerald as the lights turned on. "Now what? Haven't I been through enough adventure for a day?" Catching sight of a huge fan that was turning on behind the Master Emerald, Knuckles groaned. "That can't be good."

INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. FAN BLOWING INTRUDER FROM MASTER EMERALD. ALL UNITS, LOCK DOWN. ENGAGE SPIKES FROM BACK WALL IN THE MASTER EMERALD ROOM. I REPEAT, INTRUDER ALERT.

"Ahhh! No! I must grab that Emerald!" Knuckles looked over his shoulder. There were the spikes, and the fan was blowing him closer to them. "I will NOT go down that easy!" Knuckles slammed his fists into the wall hard. He held on for dear life. _Let the fan turn off… I can't hold on much longer. But I'm not gonna let go!_

The fan blew harder. Knuckles felt his eyelids peeling back. His fists were dragging down the wall. Desperate, Knuckles began climbing. After a few minutes, he was once again inches away from the Master Emerald. Unfortunately, the fan blew harder. Knuckles' namesakes slipped from the wall. "No!" Knuckles was nearing the spikes at a dangerously fast pace. If he hit them, he would be lucky to live. Knuckles closed his eyes. Suddenly the wind vanished and he felt his feet hit the ground. He fell to his knees. When he opened his eyes, He was looking at Eggman's foot. He abruptly stood up and took a few huge paces back. "What are you doing here?" He spat. "If you're going to confront me at all, I want the real Eggman. Not some holographic clone, got it?"

"Oh, I am the real one."

Knuckles failed to notice the fact that Eggman had a static line going through him, which meant he was obviously a hologram.

"Knuckles, I have the Master Emerald here for a reason! I'm using it to defeat Tails! No matter how hard I try, he won't listen! He's trying to destroy the world!"

"Yeah, right!" Knuckles yelled angrily. "I'm not falling from another one of your tricks, Egghead. Do you think I'm stupid?"

There was a pause. "Don't answer that."

"This is serious, Knuckles, you must help me! I know Sonic and Espio are trying to help Tails, but you have to go against them and help me! Tails has gone bad, I swear."

"I don't trust you."

"I know you don't, but at least let me prove myself worthy!"

"Yeah, how?" Knuckles said impatiently.

Eggman took out a small, battery powered television and turned it on. On the screen was a recording of Tails pacing back and forth, saying loudly, "I'll get you, Sonic! Don't worry Eggman, I won't let you down."

Knuckles stared, wide eyed. Was Tails serious? Sonic wasn't going to take this well. He couldn't decide whether Sonic was going to go in denial and try and fight Knuckles or accept the facts and get angry at Tails. "You are telling the truth…"

"What did I tell you? We must stop Sonic and the others before they help him!"

"Leave it to me, Eggman. I'll talk to him."

Little did Knuckles know that Eggman had done this to Tails.

**Okay, that was a pretty long one (was for me anyway). Keep an eye out for the next couple of chapters. Sonic and Knux get in a fight, The gang see Tails again… so on. If you read, please review! Sorry about the long wait for this chapter, too! I was in Florida over Easter break and couldn't manage to get hold of a computer. Not to mention, I kept getting an error message when trying to submit this chap. Sorry! Please R&R!**


	13. Chapter 13: Sonic vs Knuckles

**I'd like to thank everyone that reviewed so far:**

**Shelfkid91, Maverick87, captain deoxys, Tucker's Mayflower, Volt the Hedgehog, Taryn Wander'r, Professor Ken, and tailslover666. Thanks you guys!**

**For all you Sonic or Knux fans out there, this chap's for you! PLEASE review!**

CHAPTER 13: SONIC VS. KNUCKLES

"I'll talk to him… no! I still don't trust you! You've tricked me before, and I'm not going to let it happen again."

"Believe what you want, but the facts remain: it's the truth, and there's nothing you can do about it!" Eggman said. "You saw Tails on that TV screen."

"I'm not falling for another one of your sick tricks, and that's final. Besides, you were the one who captured Tails!" Knuckles said simply.

"I know! But I regretted it when he started destroying my robots! He said that he was going to kill Sonic, and he didn't want me to interfere!" Eggman said quickly.

"Like I'm supposed to believe that."

"Tails switched sides, I'm telling you!"

Technically, Eggman was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. Tails was against Sonic, but he left out a little tidbit of information. Tails hadn't been doing this on his own, the memory chip Eggman put in him had caused it. Actually, 'put in him' was to friendly of a phrase, Eggman had cut a gash in Tails' arm, let it bleed painfully, and then he put the memory chip in.

"Would you like to see the video again?"

"No, I've seen enough." Knuckles said, calming down a bit. The video. That was proof. It couldn't have been a lie. But Knuckles had foolishly failed to notice that Tails had said in the video: "Don't worry Eggman, I won't let you down." He had been paying to much attention to the fact that Tails indeed wanted Sonic dead.

After a few seconds, Knuckles again said, "I'll go talk to Sonic. But first get me out of this darkness. I fell in from the top."

The lights turned on and Eggman pointed past the Master Emerald. "There's an exit right at the end of this hallway. Make a left and you'll see it."

"Thanks," Knuckles said dully. "Now move aside so I can get the Master Emerald. Mind you, I'm not that comfortable with _you _having it, whether you've seen the light or not."

"But Knuckles, if you take it back to the shrine, Tails will find it! Let me keep it here!"

Seeing the fear in Eggman's eyes, Knuckles nodded. "Fine. But if I say I need it, then you better let me!"

"Of course, Knuckles. We're a team!"

"I'm not going that far. See ya."

Knuckles ran down the hallway and out of the building. So it wasn't a base after all, it was a hiding spot for the Master Emerald. As soon as he got outside, he saw Espio.

"Espio! Have you seen Sonic?"

"I haven't. What happened inside?"

"The Master Emerald's in there. I'm letting Eggman hold it for now."

"Why? He's using it for the wrong reasons."

"Not this time. He's keeping it there so Tails doesn't get it."

"Why can't Tails get it? Better him than Robotnik."

"Once again, not this time. I don't know why, but Tails… is trying to hurt Sonic. Eggman showed me a recording he managed to catch of him. He wants to kill Sonic."

"How come? I thought he and Sonic were friends."

"I said I don't know. I understand this about as well as you do. I still can't get rid of that feeling that Eggman knows more than he's telling me, though."

"Either way, we have to tell Sonic."

"Yeah, you're right. I doubt he'll believe it though."

"We'll have to make him."

"Look, you go back to town and tell Vector and Charmy about this while I go talk to Sonic."

"Roger."

Espio turned and headed towards town while Knuckles started walking around the side of the base. "Hey, what's that doing here?" Knuckles said aloud to himself. Flying towards him was Cheese the Chao. He (chao don't have gender so I'm just saying 'he') looked worried and the way he was whining made it sound like he was trying to tell Knuckles something. "Where's the fire, Lassie?"

Cheese just kept trying to pull Knuckles towards the base entrance. "Where's Cream? You're usually with her." That was when Knuckles realized that Cream was usually with Amy, and Amy was usually with Sonic. Therefore, wherever Cream was, Sonic was most likely there, too. "Come on, do you know where Cream or anyone else is?"

Cheese shook his head. "Chao, chao…"

Off in the distance, they heard a high pitched call. "Shh!" Knuckles hissed. He put a hand over Cheese's mouth.

"Cheese… Cheese.." The voice echoed.

"Cream! That you?" Knuckles hollered. He followed the sound of her voice. "There you are." He said as he ran into another entrance to the building and saw her.

"Hi Knuckles! You found Cheese, thank you so much!"

"Yeah, sure, but where's Sonic? Have you seen him?"

"Yes, I have, he's with Amy in the base. I was with them too, but I ran off to look for Cheese! He got scared and flew away!"

"Do you know where they went?"

"Here we are!" Sonic said just then, heading towards them from a different direction. Amy was following him, struggling to keep up. "What's up, Knuckles?"

Knuckles was about to ask why Amy, Cream, and Cheese were even here, but decided that wasn't important by now.

As they walked back outside, Knuckles explained. "Sonic, I've got some bad news."

Sonic knew Knuckles really meant it by the tone of his voice. "What's that?"

"It's about Tails."

"What about Tails?" Amy asked. "Is he… okay?

"Yes, and no. He's… not on our side anymore. He wants to hurt you, Sonic. Really bad. Eggman just told me, and showed me a recording."

Sonic laughed. "You're falling for another one of his tricks again? Oh brother! This is hilarious! Aren't you forgetting he's the one who captured Tails in the first place?"

"He said he did capture Tails before, but then Tails threatened him and told him not to interfere with his plans for killing Sonic, so he didn't. I trust that he's seen the light and is willing to help us stop Tails if we need his help."

Sonic continued laughing. "Knux, think about it! The whole idea sounds so messed up! Tails, telling Eggman not to interfere because he wanted to kill me? Yeah right! And Eggman, seeing the light? Not a chance. Think about it, do you seriously believe that fathead?"

"Yes, he showed me a video for proof!" Knuckles said, angry now.

Suddenly, Sonic changed tones, too. "Yeah, well Tails is my friend. If you want to believe he's gone bad, fine, but I'm not giving up on finding him just because you fell for another one of Eggman's tricks."

"I won't let you help him! He'll bring the world to its knees after he destroys you!"

"Tails wouldn't do that! He's nice!" Cream yelled at Knuckles.

"Yeah!" Amy and Sonic said in unison.

"Sorry Knuckles, looks like we win."

"You're not helping him!" Knuckles yelled, throwing a fist towards Sonic. By the time he was half way done with his punch, Sonic was behind him.

"You'll have to do better than that, buddy!"

"I'm serious, Sonic!"

"So am I. I trust Tails over Eggman though, and so should you."

"For the last time, Sonic, there's proof!"

"Doesn't mean it's real proof."

Knuckles had had enough arguing. He fired a fist at Sonic again, catching him off guard. Sonic clutched his side, where Knuckles' fist had made contact. "You think you're tough, don't you?" Sonic said through gritted teeth.

"That's it! You're going to pay for hurting my Sonic!" Amy pulled out her piko piko hammer and ran towards Knuckles.

"Uh oh.." Knuckles dodged the first swing and shoved Amy backwards. She lost her balance and fell, dropping the hammer. Sonic raced over to her.

"I wonder how well I could swing this thing?" Sonic said experimentally. He picked up the hammer and ran full speed at Knuckles. He tried his luck and aimed right for Knuckles' legs. The hammer immediately made contact and took Knuckles' legs out from underneath him, causing him to fall on his rear. He turned and saw the outcome. "Not a bad weapon, Amy!" He returned the hammer and spin dashed towards Knuckles. Hitting him square in the chest, he drove the still-sitting Knuckles further and further back. When he finally stopped, Knuckles took the opportunity to stand up and again attempted to strike Sonic. Used to Knuckles' strategy by now, Sonic caught his arm in mid-punch and twisted. Knuckles screamed.

"Ah!"

"Ready to give up?"

"I don't give up!"

Sonic twisted harder. Knuckles bent over to relieve some of the pain from his arm. "How about now?" Sonic questioned.

Knuckles said nothing. With his heel, he kicked Sonic hard in the shin. Sonic immediately let go. If he wasn't blue, that would end up being a nasty looking bruise. Knuckles began punching down nearby trees. They crashed to the ground, and even Sonic would admit that it wasn't that easy to avoid them. Getting showered by pines was no day at the beach, either—although being at the beach would've been just as bad for Sonic, as that was too close to the water for comfort in his case.

"Give up, Sonic! I'm not going to let you try and help Tails just so he can go off and help Eggman conquer the world!"

"Sorry Knuckles, but you're not going to stop me. Tails needs my help, and you're not going to interfere with that."

"Just watch me!"

"You know you can't beat me, Knuckster! We learn that every time you find out Eggman tricked you."

"Yeah, Knuckles!" Amy yelled.

"Shut up." Knuckles said dryly to her.

"Who's going to make me?" Amy challenged him.

Knuckles snorted. "Not a smart comment, Amy."

"If you want to hurt Tails, you're going to have to go through me first!"

Sonic dashed over to the two of them. "First you'll have to go through me!"

Cream ran over next. "Please, stop fighting! We're not going to find out the truth if you guys act this way."

Sonic thought about this. He knew Tails was still his best friend… he just knew it. Tails wouldn't try to hurt anyone if they didn't deserve it. As much as he hated to admit it, the only way he was going to be able to convince Knuckles was if he calmed down and explained his side of things. "Cream's right you guys. We'll find out what really happened and take it from there."

"Oh, so the great hero Sonic is forfeiting a fight?" Knuckles asked insultingly.

Sonic turned to face Knuckles. "The 'great hero Sonic' is doing what a great hero should do! I'm worried about my friend Tails and I'm going to find him because Tails is a lot more important to me than beating you in a fight. Anybody who's going to help me find Tails and not give up on him no matter what happens, give me a thumbs-up.

Amy, Cream, and Cheese stuck a thumb up in the air for Sonic to see. Behind them, arriving just in time to hear Sonic's request, Espio, Charmy, and Vector did the same. All eyes were on Knuckles now.

_No. Say no… Oh Knuckles, who're you kidding? Eggman's tricked you before, and proof or no proof, he's found a way to do it again. I'm not falling for Eggman's tricks anymore, and that includes this one, _Knuckles thought to himself. He joined the others and gave Sonic a thumbs-up. "Okay."

"All right! Let's find our fox!"

"I'm right here!" A young voice called from about ten yards behind them. Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, the Chaotix, Cream, and Cheese all turned to see whom the voice belonged to, and all gasped at the same time.

He was holding a one Chaos Emerald in each hand, real ones. He'd get the Master Emerald later, when he needed it. Right now he'd see if two Emeralds would be enough to help him do the job. He began walking towards Sonic silently. Sonic just stared. He didn't look happy.

From Eggman's flying fortress off in the distance, the real Eggman was watching the situation on a screen in the control room. "Show them what you've got, Tails."

**The next chapter's going to really get good, not to mention slightly emotional for Sonic (he can get that way SOMETIMES). Please review for this one well you wait… on second thought, I've constantly asked this and the most reviews I've gotten for one chapter is 3. All the others are 2, 1, or 0 and I think my story is a little better than that :( I'm now asking for 2 or more reviews per chapter before I update. Please review, once again.**


	14. Chapter 14: Tails Returns

**Okay, this is a big chap. Lots of things happen. Once again, I want to thank all who have reviewed. Right now, I have four more chapters planned for this story, then on to the sequel. I'm only going to post it on if I get more reviews, though. I must say… I'm sort of disappointed that I have over 2000 hits, yet only 14 reviews. I don't know why I don't get as many reviews as a lot of other stories. All I'm asking is for you people who haven't reviewed to take two minutes of your time to tell me what you think of my story. Please read and review.**

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: TAILS RETURNS

"TAILS?" Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and the Chaotix all said at once.

Different thoughts were going through all of their minds. How did Tails escape from Eggman so easily? Why did he have two of the Chaos Emeralds? Why did he look just as normal as usual, with no injuries whatsoever?

Wait, Sonic thought, there was one noticeable one. A cut on his arm. Sonic didn't think much of it. Maybe Tails had just accidentally nicked himself with something sharp.

Everyone was silent for a full five minutes. Weeks had gone by since Tails was captured, and all of them had been thinking Eggman would've hurt Tails by now, or at least done a better job of keeping him prisoner. It seemed like him to do that. That seemed to be his method to lure Sonic into one of his traps. His motives were different this time though, and this was something Sonic was going to find out very soon.

"Tails?" Sonic finally said, breaking the silence. "How did you get out of there?" Reality hit. His buddy was back. "Tails! Are you ok? Talk to me, I've been worried about you for weeks!"

Sonic started towards Tails, but Amy reached out and grabbed his arm. "Sonic, something's not right."

"What do you mean?"

Knuckles stepped forward. "I'm telling you, Sonic, Tails isn't who you think he is anymore." He said, but in calmer tones than before. Knuckles was beginning to discover that Sonic didn't believe him very often if he started throwing a tantrum. He just had to keep as calm as he could.

Sonic noticed the sincerity, the calmness of Knuckles' voice. He really meant it. Before he had time to respond though, Tails spoke again.

"I found you!" He said threateningly. He took a step forward, slowly.

"Know the truth now, Sonic?" Knuckles asked sadly.

Frustrated, shocked, and somewhat confused, Sonic took a step back with each respective step Tails took. "…Tails? What happened to you? I'm Sonic, remember?" He asked uncertainly. For the first time in years, fear was noticeable in his voice. He wasn't scared of what Tails could do to him, or the fact that Tails might hurt him, but rather the idea that his best friend was against him. Something was dangerously wrong. This wasn't the Tails he knew three weeks ago.

"No small talk! It took me long enough to find you, and I'm not going to let Eggman down!" Tails yelled. He wasn't an Eggman robot. His mind was just telling him he was against Sonic from the memory chip effects. Even his voice was still the same. Nothing about him looked different, either, except for his hateful expression. He practically had the same personality, and was still himself, but just an evil reincarnation. In other words, instead of looking up to Sonic, he admired Eggman; he still had his mechanical genius; he was still somewhat shy; and he still had all of his old memories. Only one thing changed. Instead of being his best friend, Tails was Sonic's enemy, and no matter how many memories of the two of them hanging out or stopping Eggman he had, he couldn't control what the computer memory chip made him do or think. Even though, deep inside he knew Sonic was his best friend, the evil side of him was outrunning his normal self. Even though he knew and hated what he was saying to Sonic, there was nothing he could do to control it. "Eggman's watching me… he'll keep me safe when I'm fighting them! I can do anything when he's with me!" That sounded just like what the normal Tails would say about Sonic if he were fighting Eggman.

Without further hesitation, Tails jumped in the air and twirled his namesakes and headed straight towards his main target: Sonic. Rather than countering Tails' attack with one of his own as he would normally do, Sonic dodged Tails by running to the left a bit. He wasn't going to hurt him yet, not unless he was sure that Tails was really against him.

"Sonic," Knuckles said, "I know that we agreed we were going to get to the bottom of this, but I think the only way to help Tails is to stop him right now. We don't even know how we're going to get him back to normal, or what's bothering him. We have to stall him off for a while, and the best way to do that is to fight him."

"I think Knuckles is correct on this one." Espio agreed. "There's nothing we can do to help him at the moment."

Sonic said nothing. He wouldn't have had the chance to anyway, as Tails had come rushing towards him again. Caught off guard, Sonic pushed Tails away in defense instead of running. Not enough to really hurt him though, just enough to make the two of them a safe distance apart.

Tails groaned as he got up. It was time to use the Chaos Emeralds. He pulled them out of one of his namesakes. Almost immediately, a white power aura glowed around him, although his golden yellow fur remained the same shade. He sped towards Sonic again, spinning his Tails for extra speed. He was much faster now. He jumped up in the air and aimed a sturdy foot at Sonic's stomach. Once again, Sonic dodged, and Tails skidded along the ground. He turned around to face Sonic and started running yet again. He jumped in the air. He turned his tails on Sonic and used them as a whip, but Sonic managed to grab one of them before he got struck. He pulled it downward, adding more force to the impact as Tails' momentum caused him to hit the ground. Flat on his stomach and in a considerable amount of pain, one of his namesakes was still in Sonic's grasp. Realizing now that he had no choice, Sonic spoke up. "All right Tails, I don't know who you think you are right now or what's happened to you, but either way, you should know from so many years of hanging out with me that you can't beat me!" Sonic said. He was somewhat angry, but his smirk hid his feelings. "You put up a great effort, I must admit, but if you've switched sides I'm not going to let you get away with this!"

Hearing Sonic's words, part of the good side of Tails deeply wished he could apologize to his friend. The good side of him just couldn't break through though. Hot, angry tears spilled from his eyes. At least he could control a part of him. "Sonic… I'm.. I…" Tails tried so hard, but it was no use. "…I will get away with it..!" _No, NO! Don't say that…_

"I don't believe it…" Sonic said, sounding surprised and somewhat unhappy. Tails truly wanted to hurt him.

"Sonic!" Vector said from a distance. "Didn't you hear what Tails said a few minutes ago? He was sayin' he could do anything when Eggman was with him!"

"That means…" Knuckles began.

"…that Eggman must be behind this! I knew Tails wouldn't do this on purpose!" Sonic said.

_Thank you, thank you! They do get it…! _Tails thought silently to himself. Once again though, the memory chip took over, and he stood up and elbowed Sonic across the face in one motion. The Chaos Emeralds' powers then wore off.

Sonic was on the verge of passing out from the strike. Not only was it painful, it was causing him to get dizzy. A blow reinforced by two Chaos Emeralds wouldn't be a light one. Before collapsing to the ground, Sonic snatched the Chaos Emeralds out of Tails' hand and weakly tossed them behind him.

Espio immediately snatched them and used his invisibility to disappear so that Tails couldn't find him. He ran a short distance and made himself visible again behind a large tree.

Knowing that they now had two Chaos Emeralds, Sonic relaxed and almost recovered from the elbow strike when Tails unexpectedly threw a fist into Sonic's stomach and held it there for good measure, causing Sonic to collapse unconscious on the ground. The fox then took flight and headed out of sight.

"WHAT? NO! WHY IS HE FLYING BACK HERE?" Eggman shouted, watching Tails head back towards the Black Hawk. "HE LET THEM STEAL THE CHAOS EMERALDS!"

A few minutes later, Tails arrived in the control room. "I'm back, Doctor." He said.

"I'm very well aware of that! How dare you let them keep the Chaos Emeralds!"

Just now remembering this, the small amount of Tails' mind that was left unaffected by the memory chip was relieved that Sonic and the gang had the Emeralds safe in the possession, while the mostly evil part of Tails' mind was angry that he hadn't killed Sonic or managed to keep the Chaos Emeralds. Simultaneously, both parts of Tails' mind were full of fear, fear of what Eggman would do to him now.

"Perhaps I didn't make that computer chip strong enough! It's easy to tell that you are slowly becoming your true self again, and that is not good! I ought to replace that chip in your arm with one that will make you permanently evil, and find a way to erase your memories of you and Sonic from your mind. I can't have this happen again!"

Tails had gone through enough pain the first time Eggman had put a computer chip in his arm, and didn't fancy repeating the experience. Not to mention, if he did, he would be his best friend's enemy, forever! He couldn't let that happen! "NO! Er—I mean, it won't happen again! Please, give me another chance. I won't fail you."

"Hmph. Fine! I won't put you through all of that again, but I am going to make the computer chip that's currently inside of you stronger." Eggman said. "Come with me."

Forced by the memory chip to obey, Tails followed. "What're… what're you going to do to me?"

"We still have three of the Chaos Emeralds. If I can transfer some of the energy from one of them into the memory chip, the chip will have a stronger affect on your mind, causing you to truly feel like you are Sonic's enemy, but still leaving you with your memories."

Tails' flinched at the thought.

"Does that idea bother you?" Eggman asked. He knew Tails was slowly overcoming the power of the computer chip.

Tails stopped in his tracks. "It… n…yes! It does! I'm sick of this! Because of you, I'm Sonic's enemy! I'll never forgive you for this, and I'm definitely not going to let you make things any worse."

"Oh really? How are you going to stop me, then?"

"I'll… I'll reprogram all your robots and turn them against you!" Tails said out of the blue.

Eggman almost laughed. "That's useless!"

"Hm… yeah, I guess you're right! Those stupid robots never did do you much good, now, did they?" Just by hearing himself say that, Tails knew he was picking up traits from Sonic.

"What… How dare you! That's it, no more games! I'm making you Sonic's enemy whether you like it or not!" Tails turned to run away, but Eggman managed to grasp his namesakes, causing Tails to stop.

"Hey! Let go of me!"

"You want me to, don't you?"

Tails growled under his breath. "Okay, fine!" Tails said bravely. He spun his tails as fast as he could, getting Eggman caught up in them. Fully back to normal and able to control his own actions again, Tails slammed Eggman on the ground and ran for his life. He didn't know where to go, but he figured the best idea would be to get off of this fortress, and fast. He kept running. There had to be another exit aside from the one he used to get in… he would have to go the other way to get there, and Eggman was right in his path! Then something above him caught his eye. It looked like a latch door on the ceiling. Taking flight, Tails busted through it and flew out, only to find himself on top of the Black Hawk. It sure was big. The wind was blowing, and it was raining hard. Suddenly, Tails saw a flash of lightening. "Ah!" Tails yelped. He couldn't stand thunder storms. He looked back down at the opening he had just ascended from. He couldn't turn back… not now… Eggman would catch him!

Determined not to let his fear of lightening and thunder stop him, Tails ran along the top of the fortress. Security robots seemed to pop up out of nowhere, along with cannons. Petrified with fear and having no idea what to do next, Tails froze. Time seemed to come to a stop all around him as memories flashed before his eyes. _I have to do something, they're closing in! Where's Sonic when I need him..._

Then Tails' anger, fear, and sadness exploded, and he took it out on everything around him, destroying cannons and robots with one hit. His words got rather imaginative, too. He jumped in the air and flew, his tails destroying the cannons he ran into.

He felt as if he was being torn in half. Even though most of the computer chip's effects had worn off, a small part of him still felt hatred towards Sonic, and Tails couldn't stand it any more. More than anything right now, he hated Eggman.

In less than ten minutes, the whole fleet on top of the fortress was wiped out. Without stopping, Tails ran towards the edge of the fortress and looked below him. He was about to be free again. Tails calmed down at that thought. He began spinning his namesakes and bent his knees, preparing to jump.

"Stop right there!"

Tails reflexively whirred around. Lightening flashed as he did, and Tails saw him. Eggman headed towards him in his Egg Walker, using his laser to lock onto Tails. Tails was gone if he pressed that button…

"Eggman…" _No, I was so close! _"Let me go!" Tails yelled as loudly as he dared.

"Forget it!" Eggman yelled back, sounding very sincere. He really meant it. "Don't you dare jump. I'll press it."

"Yeah right! You're just saying that so that I'll come back in there with you so you can make me hate Sonic again! I'm not coming!"

"If you make one more move…"

"I don't want to hear your sad threats! I'm sick of this!"

"Wow, that's some pretty big talk for a six-year-old!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to let you make me hurt Sonic! Even if it means taking the risk of you hurting me!"

"Tails, I'm warning you…!"

"Shut up, you sick bastard!"

Tails jumped and spun his namesakes. Eggman fired. The bullet missed Tails by a hair, and he continued downwards, now letting himself fall freely to gain more speed. He would use his tails when he needed them. Tails looked down at the forest he was falling towards. Once he landed, where would he hide? Should he go back to Sonic? No. If Eggman followed him, he would end up hurting Sonic again. He would have to go back to his workshop for now.

Nearing ground, Tails began turning his namesakes when something grabbed them. He turned his head to see a claw pinched on his tails, and it was coming from Eggman's machine which was now in flight mode. "You didn't think you could get away that easily, did you? You seriously thought, that I, being the genius that I am, did not have a plan B?"

"There! Are you ready to go after Sonic for real this time, Tails?"

"Yes, Doctor!"

"That's more like it." Eggman had just finished putting a small Chaos Emerald shard in the gash on Tails' arm, restoring the power of the computer chip and further yet, taking over Tails' mind. It was amazing (and scary, in this case) what Chaos powers were capable of. Tails had given a tried and true effort, but couldn't get away from Eggman. Now they were back on the ship, and Eggman had just finished the procedure. "After trying to get away, you're just lucky I didn't make the changes permanent with a more powerful computer chip! You'll go back to your normal self _after _Sonic is defeated! You'd better be grateful I'm giving you this much!"

The Chaos Emerald shard combined with the computer chip was enough power to turn Tails against Sonic. Eggman had caused the Chaos Emerald to have a negative effect on Tails' mind, thereby filling him with anger towards Sonic. Not to mention, robot memory chip was still there transferring its message to Tails' brain saying that he was an Eggman robot. Very little of Tails' mind was still pure and good, and his memories were only vague.

"Tails, sunset is nearing. It's been almost six days since the chip was inserted into you, and you've tried to hurt Sonic only once. Not to mention, you failed. Tomorrow is your last chance, Tails. I said I wanted Sonic obliterated, destroyed, gone in seven days, and I mean it. You have until midnight tomorrow, or you can say good bye instead of Sonic!"

"I understand. Don't worry Eggman, I'll try my best!"

"I'll see that you do."

Eggman left the room. Tails stood there for a few minutes, alone. "I'm coming, Sonic. And this time I mean it!"

"Knux, any ideas?" Sonic asked. "We don't know where Tails went."

"Well, we have to find him, fast!" Cream said, tears in her eyes. "What if Eggman's hurting him?"

"Chao chao!"

"Don't worry Cream, it'll be okay!" Amy said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"We can only hope so," Espio said, his arms folded.

"Hm…" Knuckles closed his eyes, trying to think of something. "Sonic, Eggman still has the Master Emerald in there. I'll be right back." Knuckles ran off and entered the base again. It wouldn't be too hard to find, he remembered the way. Less than ten minutes later, he returned with the Master Emerald held high above his head. He put it on the ground next to the others.

"Do your thing, Knuckles," Sonic said.

Knuckles put his hands over the large glowing Emerald. "The servers… are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, enriched by the heart. The controller serves to unify the Chaos. Please Master Emerald, we are looking for someone very important to us. If the problem is not solved, destruction could bring the world to its knees. Please grant us your power!"

"Wow, Knuckles. I didn't know you could be so dramatic," Sonic comented.

A few moments of silence. The Master Emerald glowed brighter, and Knuckles felt its warmth beneath his hands. He opened his eyes. Something appeared in the Emerald, and the others leaned in for a closer look. Inside was an image of a huge, shiny black fortress. It appeared to rotate, and on the side in large silver letters were the words: _Black Hawk. _

"Wow. That's where Eggman's keeping Tails? I'd think he'd call it 'Egg Hawk', you know?" Sonic said.

"Wow, that ship is huge!" Amy said, wide-eyed. (I know that in this story, the Egg Carrier didn't exist yet because this is before Sonic Adventure, but just imagine the Black Hawk being about twice as big as the Egg Carrier).

Sonic then understood. "I knew that Chaos Emerald that fell near me in that forest I was in a few weeks ago must've come from somewhere… that's probably exactly where it came from! And counting that one, we had five Emeralds total before Eggman took them. We just got two of them back, which means he has three. Two must still be out there. We have to find them before Eggman does, and then we have to get on that ship and save Tails!"

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement to Sonic's plan. Now that they knew exactly what they had to do, things would be a whole lot easier. At least, that's what they thought.

**Okay, coming up in the next chapter, Sonic and Knuckles go after the last two remaining Chaos Emeralds while the Chaotix keep an eye on the Master Emerald. Also, this is the seventh day for Tails… will he follow through with his evil deed or will he pay the price? I'm asking nicely, PLEASE, PLEASE review. Anybody can review! New reviewers, old reviewers, anonymous… I don't care, just review. I only have fourteen… :(**


	15. Chapter 15: The Last Chaos Emeralds

**HOLY CRAP, that was scary! I thought I deleted my story yesterday, but today it's still here (phew!). **

**This is a quick update (too quick if you ask me; I didn't leave you people in suspense long enough) but here's chapter 15! This story should end up being 17 or 18 chaps total. This chapter's a bit short, but I've made shorter ones. R & R please.**

CHAPTER 15: Sonic's breaking point

"Sonic, Knuckles!" Amy called. "The Black Hawk's moving away! We have to stop it!"

Sonic looked in the direction of the ship. "That was sudden. I think he's going after… the Chaos Emeralds! He has five on their. He's probably using them to track the last two Chaos Emeralds!"

"Hey, Sonic's right!" Knuckles said. "We have to get moving if we ever want to see the old Tails again. Sonic? Ready?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! Let's get going that way." Sonic picked up the fake Chaos Emerald in one hand and grabbed Knuckles' wrist in the other before running off.

"Good luck, you guys!" Cream called.

"Hm. We should prob'ly watch the Master Emerald for Knuckles," Vector suggested.

"Yeah, you know how mad he gets!" Charmy said, slowing his flight to land on top of the green jewel. "I can kick anyone's butt! Let me guard it!"

"I don't think so Charmy." Espio said. "I'll guard it. Nobody will know I'm here until I knock them out when they try and steal it."

"No! I'm guardin' it!" Charmy said.

"You think?" Espio ran for Charmy, but he jumped out of the way. Angry at his failure to catch a four-year-old, Espio turned invisible. Charmy slowed down. "Darn it, I hate when he does that! Nobody can tell if he's still there!"

Meanwhile, Sonic and Knuckles were practically under the shadow of Eggman's ship, and the signal from their fake Emerald was getting stronger. Night was nearing, and the sky was full of purple clouds. "Eggman is going after those last two Emeralds, Sonic! If we don't hurry, he might use all seven to make Tails stronger!"

" 'If we don't hurry?' C'mon, Knuckles, I'm not that slow!" Sonic replied with a smirk.

"Look, you just get us where we need to be and I'll do the looking."

"Right. You're the treasure hunter, after all."

"Hey Sonic," Knuckles started.

"Yeah?"

"I know it's not like me to say something like this, but, do you think Tails will be all right?"

"It'll turn out okay. We'll get him back to normal, no worries!"

"I hope so. We've always beat Egghead so far, but it's a lot different this time. I mean, how are we going to get Tails back to normal? It's obvious Eggman did something to him to make him this way. Even I know Tails would never act like this if it was his choice."

"Really? You sure didn't see it that way when you tried to stop me from helping Tails!"

Knuckles flinched.

"But about Tails… I never thought of that before. As much as I hate to say it, Eggman's probably the only one smart enough around here to fix this mess, and we know he's not going to do that. But now that you mention it," Sonic paused for a few moments. "What if we can't get Tails back to normal? What if he's stays evil forever and never returns to his normal self? Just like… Just like…"

"Eggman? I know, he was never like this before… that accident."

"Yeah. Me and Eggman, we actually used to be buds. Pretty hard to believe, with him being the way he is. I don't want the same thing to happen to Tails, though."

"As evil as he is, I don't think Eggman would do something like that if he couldn't undo it."

"I hope you're right."

Although he didn't show it, Knuckles was shocked at Sonic's reaction. He never acted like this, never. Knuckles rarely saw him act worried, and he wasn't sure how to respond to it. He almost felt bad for Sonic. Tails was his best friend, after all.

Not paying attention, Sonic ran right over a pit in the ground and the two of them slammed face-first into the ground, rolling for about two hundred feet before skidding to a stop. Completely forgetting his feelings of sympathy towards Sonic, Knuckles stood up angrily. "What the heck? Can't you at least watch your step when you're taking someone with you?"

Sonic got up, covered from head to toe in scratches and bruises. "Whoops." He said nervously. "Sorry, Knuckster."

"It's Knuckles!"

Sonic sighed. "Picky, aren't we? Geez, do you have to make it worse?"

"Make what worse?"

"You really are stupid, aren't you?" Sonic snapped, upset, scared, and ultimately unforgivably irritated.

"Watch it!"

Sonic sighed again, his sigh shaking with rage and fear. "Sorry, okay? If you haven't noticed, Tails is in a bit of trouble!"

Never dreaming he would do this, Knuckles walked over to Sonic and put a comforting arm around his shoulder. "Look, just cool it okay? I'm worried about Tails, too. Let's just try not to argue so we can get this done faster."

Tired, aching, and worried about Tails for the most part, Sonic fell to his knees. He mumbled something regarding Tails that Knuckles couldn't make out, and a single tear dripped from his eye. He hoped Knuckles hadn't noticed. He would have to hit himself later if he did. Slowly standing up again, Sonic muttered something under his breath re Eggman wishing he'd never been born (with a couple of other imaginative words), grabbed Knuckles' hand and again ran off into the night. _Hang in there, Tails. Hang in there. _

"Sonic, the Emerald!"

Sonic looked at the fake Emerald in his hand. It was glowing so much it almost looked white. He slowed down and came to a halt, much smoother than he had done last time. "It's got to be around here! Knuckles, let's get digging!" Sonic reached down and began digging a hole. He looked over in Knuckles' direction, only to see his hole was about four times as deep and wide as his. Jumping in the air, he curled up into a ball and spin dashed at the ground. His hole got deeper and deeper… then he hit something. Immediately he stopped and looked at the moist, dark ground beneath him. It was being lit up by none other then the green Chaos Emerald. "All right! Jackpot already!"

"Huh?"

Sonic jumped out of his hole triumphantly.

"You got one already?"

"Yeah! Lucky find, eh?"

"That's great and all, but the signal's died down quite a bit. The last one's still a good distance away."

"That's okay, we can get there in a sonic second!"

"Wait… the glow is actually getting brighter. On both the fake and the normal Chaos Emerald. Is the Emerald moving?"

"Let's find out!" Sonic dashed forward and out of sight, before almost immediately returning. "Tails is up there! He's got the Emerald we're looking for!"

Suddenly, Sonic's radio beeped. He grabbed it. "Yeah? Oh! Vector! What's going on?"

"We took the Master Emerald back to are HQ. I just noticed something on the radar."

"What's that?"

"Eggman! He's got a huge air fleet behind the Black Hawk!"

"Why am I not surprised?" Sonic said, a smirk slowly breaking through his frown. "Anyway, I can't talk right now. Tails is coming this way."

"Huh?" Vector asked. But his was too late, Sonic had turned off his radio transmitter.

"Now what? Do we go fight?" Knuckles said desperately to Sonic.

"I… don't know… Let's see if we can just snag the Emerald and leave. I don't want to fight Tails, even if he isn't himself right now."

Tails neared the two of them. Sonic walked forward. "Tails! Why are you acting like this?"

"Like he's going to tell you! That was one of the stupidest things I've ever heard you say, Sonic?"

"Sonic… Eggman wants you gone. I am under his command; I can't disobey him!"

"Tails, don't you understand? He's done something to you to make you this way! This isn't who you really are, you've got to believe that!"

"This is who I am. I don't care what you say, you'll be dead before the end of the day!"

"Tails, snap out of it!" Knuckles yelled. "I know this is Eggman's fault and all, but this is ridiculous!"

"For once, Knuckles is right. Tails, I know you may not remember what you were like before this, or maybe you just don't care because of the effects of whatever Eggman did to you, but you always used to help me stop him and I need you to do it again."

"I'm never helping you!" Tails yelled, just like he would if he was yelling at Eggman.

This hurt Sonic greatly, but he didn't show it. He knew this wasn't Tails' fault. "Fine. Either way, that Emerald is as good as mine, Tails."

"I'm not letting you take it!"

"Oh yeah?" Sonic ran towards Tails, but Tails sidestepped just in time and hit Sonic in the back as he ran by. He fell on the ground. Knuckles couldn't tell if he was conscious or not, or if he was able to get up.

"That's it!" Knuckles said, bringing his fists up into a fighting stance. "Who do you think you are!" He demanded, quite literally.

"What do you want?" Tails snapped, whirring around reflexively.

"Give me that Chaos Emerald, or else!"

Tails, even in this state, knew Knuckles well enough to know that when he threatened somebody, he didn't back out on it. Knuckles was no liar, and when he made a threat, he carried it out. And Tails, despite being on the opposite side as before, still had most of his regular personality traits. The old Tails had known better than to challenge Knuckles, and this one was just the same. He thought of some way he could get out of this without getting hurt.

"Hmph! Your punches are strong, but you can't fly!" Tails spun his namesakes and jumped in the air, soaring off before Knuckles had a chance to respond. Neither of them, however, noticed that Sonic had gotten back on his feet with a furious look in his eyes. Without further hesitation, he jumped in the air as well, curling up in a ball and zooming mercilessly towards Tails. He knew they needed that Chaos Emerald. If Eggman got all seven, he would only bring the world to its knees, not to mention make Tails' condition worse. He couldn't let that happen, and if stopping it meant hurting Tails, that was the way it was going to have to be.

Realizing he was about to deliberately harm his best friend caused Sonic to stop short, though. Slowing his speed and unrolling himself, Sonic stopped spin dashing and let himself fall gracefully towards ground. Tails maintained flight, and continued flying back towards the Black Hawk.

Knuckles walked over to Sonic. "What the hell was that? You're just going to let him get away with that Chaos Emerald? Geez Sonic, if you really cared about Tails, you'd do whatever it takes to stop Eggman, that way you could have Tails back to the way he was!"

"Sorry, Knuckles."

"Don't apologize to me! Tails is the one who's going to suffer more once Eggman uses those Chaos Emeralds to make him stronger!"

"What do you mean?"

"You could have, but didn't, gotten away with simply hurting Tails temporarily to get that Chaos Emerald away. But if Eggman gets the rest of these somehow, or even uses the four that he has now to make Tails more powerful—because his four outnumbers our three! With even four Chaos Emeralds, plus whatever other crazy thing Eggman is currently doing to Tails right now may end up making him so powerful that the only way to stop him would be to—would be to—"

Sonic fell to his knees. "This isn't my day, Knux. Darn it, I should have done something. But still—I'm not going to let that moron get away with this! I hope Eggman's ready for me, because I just invited myself to his fortress!"

"How're we going to get up there?"

"The Tornado! What else?"

"Well? What are we waiting for? The more time we waste, the more time Tails is on Egghead's side. And for all we know, Eggman could make him even worse."

"All right, let's get going!"

"But Sonic, uh, no more of this mushy stuff. I know you care about Tails, but just remember, what we're doing is for the best. It ain't easy, but it looks like the only way we can save the world and Tails from Eggman is to hurt him."

"Yeah, you're right. The real Tails would understand. But then again, if he was the real Tails, none of this would be happening—"

"Sonic..."

"Right! Let's show Eggman what we're made of. No worries!"

**Poor Sonic. That's what I thought when I made this Chapter, anyway. ANYWAY, the next update should be as usual, in about a week, give or take a day. Thanks to all those who have read my story so far! I've decided, I will eventually make a sequel to this, although I may wait a bit and give myself a break from this series so I can work on another of my Sonic fics. In other words, it'll probably start about a month after this one ends, so stay tuned!**


	16. Chapter 16: Shocker

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Shocker

"So, Eggman's outnumbered us with Chaos Emeralds. We've only got three, and as far as I know, he's got the other four."

"Right. We just have to make sure he doesn't get a hold of the Master Emerald. If it isn't too late already, it will be if he gets that—"

"Yeah, well, we won't let him take it then."

"Sorry, but that was a really, _really _sad remark, Sonic."

Sonic shrugged. "I know."

"You're really not making any sense, you know that?"

"…Okay, Master Emerald, you were saying?"

Knuckles sighed. "What are we going to do with it so Egghead doesn't get it again?" He said very slowly and levelly, trying hard to control his temper.

"Well, Vector and the guys can keep an eye on it."

"Are you crazy? They can't handle a responsibility like that! Even if they can, it'll only be for the money! They've gone this far without making us pay them, and I doubt it'll last much longer!"

There was a moment of silence. "Well, there's always Amy."

"Chaotix it is."

"Smart choice, Knuckles!" Sonic said, giving him a thumbs-up.

"They have it already, right? I'm going to phone 'em real quick."

"Phone 'em? Boy, didn't know you carried a cell phone on you, Knuckles," Sonic said, grinning broadly.

Ignoring Sonic's comment, Knuckles took out the miniature radio Espio had given him back at their headquarters. "Vector, Espio, anyone there? Hello?"

"Knuckles?" Espio picked up almost immediately. "Is something wrong?"

"Me and Sonic are about to take off in the Tornado. This is our last chance to stop Tails. You still got the Master Emerald?"

"Yes. Don't worry, we have this under control."

"You're the only one of those three I'll trust when you say that. Just don't let Eggman get it."

"I won't. Besides, do you think he'll land the Black Hawk just to get some Emerald?"

"That Emerald is more powerful than you'll ever know, and Eggman's the kind of guy who'll take advantage of that!" Knuckles snapped. "DON'T let Eggman get it! I have a strange suspicion that he's going to try to, real, real soon."

"I'll do what I can, Knuckles."

Without a farewell, Knuckles hung up. "Ready to save Tails?" Knuckles asked, a determined grin on his face.

"You bet!" Sonic said, with a smirk that suddenly changed to a look of bitterness. "Eggman's going to be sorry. Really sorry. He should know by now what happens when he messes with _my _buds!"

"For an IQ of 300, the guy isn't that smart, is he?" Knuckles said dully.

"No, he's not!" Sonic snapped angrily. "Man, when I get my hands on him—I'll spindash the top of his bald head so hard it'll come out his ass!"

"You really do have a unique way with words, don't you Sonic?" Knuckles pointed out.

Sonic calmed down and smirked again. "Yes, I try."

"We really ought to go now. We're wasting daylight, and I don't want to see Tails get killed either." Knuckles suggested.

"We're not going to see Tails get killed…" Sonic paused for a moment. "And if we do, Eggman'll be having his funeral as well!"

Sonic's voice was shaking as he growled under his breath. His hands were squeezed into tense fists. Amy he knew he could save when she was captured. Eggman was never serious when he took her captive, and he rarely did anything to harm her; he just used Amy to lure Sonic into one of his pathetic traps. But seeing what Eggman did to Tails had brought him to his limit. He wouldn't stop until Eggman was defeated, and Tails was safe and normal again.

"Wow, I've never seen you so upset, Sonic! What happened to the careless, reckless, annoying hedgehog I used to know?"

Remaining silent for a moment and trying hard not to focus on the insult thrown in Knuckles' last sentence, Sonic straightened up and turned to face the echidna. "I still AM the same hedgehog, Knux. I guess it's just a different part of me that's coming out… letting itself go, or some sort of emotional crap like that." Sonic replied.

"It's 'cause you care about Tails."

"Well no kidding. If Eggman just had him captured and that was it, it wouldn't be so bad. I know I could've saved him then, no sweat! But I'm just hoping this doesn't end the wrong way! What if the only way to save the world from Eggman's clutches is to kill Tails in the process?" Sonic said, rather calmly. No matter how bad the situation, he wasn't one to lose it completely.

" 'What if,' you say? No matter what the situation, you were never a 'what if' sorta guy. You always seemed to go with the flow."

"Well, yeah. But I just don't want Tails to get hurt, that's all."

"Then stop moping! We're wasting daylight, and I'm sick of comforting you like you're some sort of tot who just scraped his knee! As much as it surprises me to say it, I liked the real Sonic much, much better!"

They were both silent for a second, then Sonic smiled. "You want it, you got it! Let's get going. I'm looking forward to spending some nice quality time with the good ol' doc!"

Knuckles was just about to ask why Sonic had so many mood swings, but decided against it. "Now, the Tornado…"

"Where is it?"

"Probably on top of the base where me and Espio… left… it…" Knuckles said, the last few words of his sentence slowly becoming inaudible.

"Smart, aren't we? So just how are we going to get it then?"

Knuckles held up a strong fist.

"Oh, right. Well, I can't climb so you're going to have to do the work, pal!" Sonic said happily.

"You know, I don't have to get it!"

"Oh, but you will, right? I'll keep hold of these Chaos Emeralds. Now hurry up! We don't have time to discuss this." Sonic took the Chaos Emeralds from Knuckles and he walked off, a vein bursting from his forehead.

"Nobody has any respect for how much _I _do!" Knuckles grumbled under his breath impatiently. _Stop complaining and do it for Tails! _A voice in his head said to him. Knuckles notched up the speed a little and began climbing up towards the top of the base. He started sweating after a few minutes. Strong fists or not, metal walls weren't his most preferred climbing materials.

Knuckles stopped abruptly as an uncomfortable thought made it's way to the front of his brain. "What if it fell through that little part of the ceiling when it collapsed, like I did? Either I'll have to go back in there and get it or Eggman's already done something with it! Great… if it's the second one, Sonic's not gonna be too happy!"

Knuckles was comfortably relieved upon reaching the top of the Eggman-head shaped building. There it was, sitting right on the edge of the hole where the ceiling had gave out: the Tornado.

Knuckles exhaled a sigh and got in the cockpit. He closed his eyes in thought. Maybe he didn't have as strong of a relationship with Tails as Sonic did, but he still cared for the guy, darn it! Why did something this bad have to happen?

"Hang in there buddy, we're on our way!" Knuckles said aloud, opening his eyes and looking up at the sky. It was then that he noticed the day seemed to go by fast. "Darn, the sun is setting already? We're wasting time!" Knuckles revved up the Tornado and quickly glided it down off the top of the building. "Sonic!" he yelled.

Sonic turned to see the Tornado nearing ground, coming smoothly towards him. He jumped up in the air and landed gracefully on the right wing. "Let's do this!"

"You sure you don't want to pilot? I'm not really skilled at this… I don't want to get us hurt. I'm sure Eggman's got some sort of surprise waiting for us near that ship of his."

"You can do it, Knuckles." Sonic said, smiling. "I can attack Eggman's offenses from here a lot faster than you, no offense."

"Right."

"Just concentrate on landing on the Hawk when we get to it, and we'll be just fine!" Sonic said confidently. He turned his attention back towards the sky, searching for any signs of what they were looking for.

Knuckles continued flying the Tornado, quite smoothly, while at the same time hesitating to mention Tails in front of Sonic. After a few moments in silence, he looked in Sonic's direction. "Hey," he called, wondering if Sonic could hear him over the wind. He was going a bit too fast for comfort, but the sooner they saved Tails, the better.

"What?"

"Do you think we'll get there on time?"

"I sure hope so," Sonic replied, although not negatively.

"What if we don't, though?"

"I'm not really all that interested in finding out."

"Yeah, not a good question to ask I guess," Knuckles agreed, turning his attention back on the sky in front of him. He thought he could see something large behind a cloud, but paid little attention to it, thinking it could simply be a dark cloud.

"Ah, that's okay. I'm not too worried anymore. I mean, we'll make it, we always do!"

Out of the blue, Knuckles thought of Angel Island. It had now been over a month since he had been there, been at his home. Secretly, he couldn't wait until all of this was over, and he had the Master Emerald back. He had to fulfill his duty, after all! But then… at the same time, he had always sort of wanted to live like Sonic, not having to stay in one place—just to be like the wind, even though he knew he couldn't. _I kind of am right now, in a sense. I mean, I'm not on Angel Island, I'm having an adventure… and if Tails' life wasn't in danger, I'd probably be having a lot of fun right now. Maybe I should try and make the best of this while I can. That's what Sonic's doing, and as much as I DON'T want to be like him, I'll admit he's pretty lucky to have such a lighthearted outlook on things, yet he still cares about others at the same time. I guess that's one of his saving graces. _

Knuckles was brought out of his fantasy of Angel Island and thoughts toward Sonic by a loud, panicked call over the wind. "KNUCKLES! Look out!"

He looked up just in time to see the electric blast from Eggman's ship make contact with the front of the plane, naturally electrocuting it, along with Sonic and Knuckles. _That _was the reason for the cloud's unusual darkness… why had he ignored it?

Knuckles struggled to reach the control panel, but found that the electricity was holding him immobile. Not even the strength in his arms was enough for him to reach that button… not only because of the shock, but the immense heat and pain that seemed to be growing by the second…

On the wing, Sonic could feel small areas of his fur beginning to scorch. He heard screams, and was in too much pain to even register that they were his own. "It.. feels like there's burning needles poking all over me!" Sonic managed to yell. What the heck was going on, he didn't know, but wasn't so sure he wanted to find out either. All he knew was that this was one of Eggman's new attacks—and admittedly, it was pretty good.

With the Tornado being metal, not to mention there were three Chaos Emeralds running it, it wasn't getting too heavily damaged. Knuckles, on the other hand, was a different story. He could see the world fading before him as his vision got blurrier and blurrier. He couldn't take it much longer. "I'm… not giving up… we have to stop Eggman… and stop Tails and save him…"

"Knuckles!" Sonic called. "You… okay? Is it affecting you too?"

Forcing himself to stay awake, Knuckles shifted his eyes over to Sonic. He tried to make his words heard, but they were barely over a whisper. "Of course it's… it's affecting me! We're being electrocuted here.."

"We have to stay awake, or it's over!" Sonic called. His body seemed to be handling the shock better, but what he was feeling was the same force as what Knuckles was feeling.

"It's… over!" Knuckles screamed. He was blacking out from the immense heat. "Tails…"

"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled, squeezing his eyes shut in pain. "I… won't let you down, Tails… and I'm not going to let Eggman destroy the world either… I'm gonna make it…" Sonic thought out loud to himself. "So you can just bring it on, Eggman…! You know you can't stop me!" He bellowed, having no idea if Eggman could even hear him from the ship. He could feel his body becoming numb, and was rather grateful. His eyes were still closed, and he wasn't sure if the electric blast had stopped attacking yet. He opened one eye, and wished he hadn't done so. He could still see the lightening-bolt-like blast burning against the Tornado and traveling through it and into Sonic's body as it proceeded from Eggman's ship.

Through all that was going on, Sonic swore he heard a voice, and it wasn't a good thing: "Sonic, this is the end! I am controlling the Black Hawk's attacks from the pilot room!"

"It's… Tails." Sonic whispered. "Eggman… You've really done it this time! I'm not gonna let you get away with this…"

Just then he heard another voice. "Enough, Tails! Just finish him!"

On the ship, Tails was indeed in the control room, holding down the button the was sending the electric blast at the Tornado, holding it in place and electrocuting the whole thing, putting Sonic through an exceptional amount of what had to be great torture.

Eggman had just entered the control room, questioning Tails about why he was taking so long.

"It's not me, Doctor! He's strong… he's not passing out!" Tails replied. The Chaos Emerald shard was having a stronger effect on him now more than ever. He felt nothing but hatred and anger towards the blue blur that was once his hero. The robot memory chip and the shard were enough to even overpower Tails' memories of him and Sonic.

Eggman grunted and pressed a few buttons. "Sending all power from Black Hawk except engine power to the lightening blaster now! Okay Tails, keep holding that! When I give the cue, don't let go of that button, but at the same time pull the big black lever right there, got it?"

"Yes, master!"

"There's no way Sonic can survive it if he's so close to passing out right now! The strength of the attack will at least quadruple itself! All right Tails, it's time to put an end to that hedgehog!" Eggman was so excited, his stomach was turning. After all these years, he was finally going to kill Sonic… by using the blur's best friend against him!

"The time has come… Ready Tails?" After a short pause while thinking if he really wanted to do this, Eggman made his final decision; it was now or never. "FIRE!" Eggman yelled determinedly.

Still holding the button, Tails reached for the lever, and yanked. The lightening bolt turned completely white and got about ten times thicker in less than a split second. Its glow lit up the sky miles and miles beyond.

"Tails, focus all the energy on Sonic! Forget the plane, Knuckles is passed out."

The Tornado dropped from beneath Sonic's feet and began to fall, but the power of the blast held him immobile in midair.

"Tails! Use the claw to keep the Tornado afloat! The last three Chaos Emeralds are in there!"

Tails pressed a different button and a long, metal claw extended from the side of the fortress, clamping around the Tornado. It pulled the Tornado inward and on the top of the fortress. "Good, Tails! Keep all the lightening energy on that hedgehog!" Eggman looked out the window as Tails did as commanded. "This is the end for you, Sonic!"

Sonic was caught in the storm of heat and brightness, eyes closed as he tried to block out the sensory overload. His spikes stood on end. His shoes and gloves looked fit to set on fire. "I AM NOT LETTING YOU GET AWAY WITH ANY OF THIS! YOU LET TAILS GO NOW!"

"What's that? Are you still trying to threaten me? You're losing, Sonic! Figure it out!" Eggman yelled. "You're LOSING!"

The electricity seemed to get stronger, and the pain and shock was unbearable. "AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" Sonic screamed bloody murder. _No, _Sonic managed to think to himself through his screams. Something talked to him from the back of his mind: _Don't give up… not here, not now…_

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! That damn hog is so persistent! That's it! Tails, initiate the power of our four Chaos Emeralds! That oughta make this attack strong enough!"

Tails put the four Chaos Emeralds in the respective spots on the control panel, and they shined bright. They both watched as the lightening bolt enlarged itself mercilessly. The power of the electrocution had to have multiplied by several whole numbers. The sky around them looked white, completely white. Had Sonic's eyes been open, he wouldn't have been able to see the Black Hawk in front of him. There was no way Sonic was going to survive this… just no way.

If at all possible, Sonic's cry of pain would have gotten louder. He squeezed his eyes shut tight. He couldn't give up… but how bad was this going to get? And how the heck could his body take so much pressure?

But through all the pain, Sonic managed to stay conscious. Unfortunately though, he could feel himself getting weaker, and his breathing was slowing drastically. He knew that, even if he didn't give up, it would all be over in a matter of seconds. He didn't want to accept it… but he couldn't take the pain any longer… but suddenly, an unexpected thought occurred to Sonic… an idea…

Sonic let his scream die out and get lost in the wind. Taking as deep of a breath as he dared, Sonic let his tensed muscles loosen. He forced himself to open his eyes, and then let them close gently. He kept breathing slowly, deeply. He convinced himself he would be okay if he just calmed down and thought of a way to get out of this. He was immobile though. Yet somehow, he felt separated now from the pain that was taking over his body. Slowly but surely, Sonic regained calmness and opened his eyes yet again, and looked weakly at the Black Hawk. "Can't stop me now."

_My god, what the HECK is wrong with me?_ Sonic thought to himself._ Or 'right.' I mean, I'm supposed to be dying here… Hey, wait a minute… I know what to do…_

Sonic winced, and forced himself to stay under control. "I'll be okay." Sonic repeated the only words that were giving him the confidence he had right now. _The Chaos Emeralds…_

Fighting through the pain, Sonic closed his eyes. He had to use the Chaos Emeralds to help him somehow. In order to do that, he had to concentrate.

The three Chaos Emeralds arose from the Tornado, even though they were quite a distance from Sonic since the plane was on the Black Hawk. They automatically glided to Sonic and surrounded him, glowing bright, brighter than the four Eggman and Tails were using to try and defeat him. _Even though they have more Emeralds than me, I'm using the positive powers of the Chaos Emeralds, while they're using the negative. I should be able to outmatch their power if I can focus on these three long enough to get the power I need._

Sonic opened his eyes. The pain was going away. In reality, it had lasted a few minutes if that, but to him it felt like hours. His chest, which had undoubtedly been burned severely, looked clean as new because of the Chaos Emeralds' healing powers. Sonic looked at his hands and feet, along with the rest of his body. None of the burns that had previously been there were present. It worked. He _was _going to be all right. Whether he had survived this because of his body's physical tolerance and hard-to-reach limit or because of pure determination, Sonic never knew.

Sonic watched as he, along with the Emeralds, grew brighter as they energized him. It had been a while since he had experienced the warm powers of the Chaos Emeralds. It was a great feeling, after being through what he just had. He wasn't in his super form because he only had three Chaos Emeralds in his presence, but he was glowing a bright, light blue. He definitely had the power he needed now. Sonic proceeded directly through the lightening blast in a flash and drew back a fist. "You were close, I'll admit." He said to Eggman calmly, the slightest hint of a grin appearing on his face. "But I have some unfinished business to take care of now. Take this!" Sonic threw his fist at the lightening launcher and knocked it clear off the Black Hawk. He had been through enough pain the first time and didn't plan on repeating the experience. He glided gently upwards and landed on the Tornado. Its shields, not to mention the Chaos Emeralds, had protected it pretty well. Hopefully, it would still run. He gave Knuckles a gentle touch on the arm, and a green aura surrounded him momentarily. He opened his eyes slowly and stood up, fully healed. "Huh…? Sonic. Thanks for that. Are.. you okay?"

"You bet! No problem." Sonic said.

"Hey, Sonic! What if this is just another trick? What if that Eggman and that Tails are just holograms, trying to stall for time?" Knuckles said abruptly, flashing back to reality.

"We'll soon find out!"

"Aaaagghhh…. Sonic….!" Eggman yelled in miserable defeat. "You think this is over, don't you? Well… Just you wait until you see what we've got hidden away on this fortress! You'll never be able to beat Tails now!"

Knuckles suddenly felt sick as he understood what Eggman meant. "No, they didn't let him take the…" But Knuckles sentence was cut off as his radio beeped. He picked it up off the ground, hoping it wasn't who he thought it was.

"Yeah?" he spoke into the radio, slowly.

"Knuckles?" Came a familiar voice. Knuckles cursed inwardly as the terrible truth he had dreaded for only a few seconds hit him. "It's Vector. I'm afraid I have some bad news…"

**Hehe, cliffhanger, I know. Anyway, for the people who are planning on reviewing, first of all, thankies! And second, if I'm changing the characters' personalities too much, let me know! I'm not one for changing a character into someone else. (Well, except Tails, no duh. I meant to do that.) Anyway, thanks for reading! Please review!**


	17. Chapter 17: A Fight for the Emeralds

**Wow, I actually don't have much to say today other then: Here's Chapter 17! You know the drill, R&R.**

CHAPTER 17: A Fight for the Emeralds

"WHADDAYA MEAN HE GOT THE MASTER EMERALD!" Knuckles demanded rather than asked. He was breathing heavily; veins were pushing against the skin on his head, looking fit to burst. And Sonic made a mental note to himself that he'd probably never forget the look on Knuckles' face. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself, even in the midst of their situation.

"We're sorry, Knux," Vector said defensively, "but we couldn't help it! He kept disappearing every time we got near him to fight him off! The fourth time he disappeared, he reappeared right next to the Master Emerald, and we were too far to get to it on time to stop him! He's pretty sneaky with all his technical stuff, you know!"

Sonic snatched the radio from Knuckles. "How did he disappear? What did it look like?" He snapped quickly.

Knuckles almost involuntarily snatched the radio away from him. "WHAT DOES IT MATTER?" He roared.

"Just listen! I'm know what I'm saying here," Sonic replied, taking the radio from Knuckles once again and turning away from him.

"You guys okay?" Vector asked.

"Just fine." He said flatly. "Sorry, Knuckles isn't behaving himself right now! Now, what were you going to say?"

"I dunno… he just sorta, faded. Real slow."

"Like Espio?"

"Sort of, I guess. He seemed to disappear in little chucks, though. Heck, I'm no good at this invisible stuff! Ask Espio."

"I think I've heard enough. That Eggman must've been another hologram." Sonic said to himself more than Vector.

Knuckles, who had calmed down a (very) little bit, stepped up toward Sonic and impatiently shook him by the shoulders a few times. "Only one problem with that! Holograms aren't solid! He couldn't have even picked up the Emerald, or harmed Vector or Espio or Charmy, idiot!"

"Well, the real Eggman's been in the ship the whole time! And besides, does it matter? Somehow Eggman got his grubby paws on the Master Emerald, and that's all that really matters, isn't it? So let's just stop fighting about it. It might have not even been a hologram. It could just be some sort of robot that looks like Eggman and can disappear." Although it sounded farfetched, even to him, it wasn't quite unusual, and neither Sonic nor Knuckles would be surprised if this was exactly what happened.

Knuckles sighed in disbelief, taking his hands off Sonic's shoulders. "Later, Vector." He said dryly and somewhat impatiently. Without waiting for a response, he carelessly tossed the radio back near the Tornado. "Maybe the Eggman on this ship is a hologram, though. There's no way to tell! Darn it Sonic, I'm sick of these fakes!"

"You think I'm not?" Sonic retorted.

"I want to know which Eggman is the real one. I want answers now!"

"Tell that to Eggman, not me! But you do bring up a good point. IF that Eggman is fake, that Tails could be fake too." Suddenly, hope sparked inside both of them as they thought the same thing.

"That means the real Tails might not be evil!" they said simultaneously.

"It's time to find out!" Sonic said, smiling.

"How?"

"I'll tell you in a minute, but what you should probably do first is find the Master Emerald. It's obvious he's not keeping it in the control room, or else we'd both be dead right now."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's see here. If it had been in the control room, I think he would've _used _it, don't you?" Sonic asked rhetorically. "I think he truly thought he was going to kill me. And if he'd had the Master Emerald at the time – me being tough or not – he would've killed me."

"Yeah. The both of us. That Emerald contains a lot of power. But… where do you think it is? Is it even on the ship?"

"I doubt it. He would've had it in the control room." Sonic concluded.

"Well… where is it? It's obvious he has it somehow, but—huh? Sonic? Where'd you go…?" Knuckles said as he looked up. Sonic had ran to the other end of the ship.

"Hey Knuckles," he called. Knuckles started in Sonic's direction. "Take a look!" he said as Knuckles caught up to him. Knuckles' eyes followed Sonic's pointed finger and he saw what he was looking at.

"An Eggman robot? And it's holding the—the Master Emerald?"

The robot heard Knuckles' furious scream and looked up at him. Unknown to Sonic or Knuckles, it was a shape-shifter and could transform into anything it pleased anytime it wanted to. It had been the Eggman hologram all along, but Sonic would never know that.

"Yeah, you!" Knuckles hollered. "What do you think _you're _doing? You'd better bring that up here, or—"

Just then the robot held something out in his hand. It looked like a grenade, but when he threw it in the air, it lit up. Sonic and Knuckles shielded their eyes by putting their arms over their face. It was too bright to see anything. "Ah— Knuckles, what's going on?"

"How should I know?" The light cleared as Knuckles spoke. "Huh? That robot's gone!" Knuckles groaned miserably.

"It must've done that so he could hide the Emerald while we were blinded. It's probably inside the fortress somewhere."

"Sonic, we've got to get it!"

"I know, but I have something else important I need to take care of first!" Sonic replied. "I need to have a friendly little chat with good ol' Doctor Egghead!" he said, smirking.

"You're crazy! What could be more important than getting the Master Emerald away from Eggman and Tails right now?"

"Finding out if this Eggman and this Tails are even the real Eggman and Tails, if that makes any sense, remember?"

"Okay, alright. You go do that, I'll get inside the ship somehow and search for that Emerald! See you Sonic, I might be a while, because I'm not stopping until I get it this time!"

Sonic watched Knuckles run off until he was out of view. This happened rather fast, as it was getting foggy out. "We must be up in the clouds now." Sonic said to himself. Shaking his head and getting frustrated at himself for not moving, Sonic ran off in the opposite direction Knuckles had gone and headed back towards the front of the ship. There was a latch door that lead to the control room. "Knuckles could've gotten in through here… wait, no. If he's going to find the Master Emerald, Eggman and Tails probably shouldn't know about it."

Sonic turned the handle and pushed on the door, but it didn't budge. Not having the patience to try a second time, Sonic jumped up in the air, flipped once, and facing his feet at the door, plummeted toward it and drove right through it, the resulting physical laws causing him to land unsteadily on the ground of the control room. Eggman and Tails reflexively jerked around to face him. "Heh, sorry to drop in!" Sonic said, dusting himself off.

"I was wondering when you'd show up, Sonic!" Eggman said, staring coldly at him. He couldn't hide the fact that he was still very angry at Sonic (not to mention Tails somewhat), since he wasn't able to defeat him.

"Oh, don't be that way just because you can't handle the fact that you lost again!" Sonic dared to snap back.

Tails stood up abruptly. "Don't you talk to him like that!"

For once, Sonic felt a small twinge of anger towards Tails, even though he knew Tails had no control of his unfortunate situation. "You'd better watch your mouth, Tails!" he said before he could stop himself.

This had no effect on the fox though. "Look who's talking!"

"You know what… I don't have time for this. I came here for two reasons and getting my answers is all that really matters. Before anything else happens on this hunk of junk you call a fortress, I want real proof that you're not a fake! I don't know how many holograms or robot clones of yourself you have out there, and I don't really care, but I want a word with the _real _Eggman!"

"If you insist!" Eggman spoke in cold, low tones. He got up and shoved Tails out of his path. "I'll deal with you later!"

Tails ran in front of Eggman. "Don't take it out on me just because Sonic survived that!"

Eggman stopped abruptly and turned a cold stare on the fox, a stare that made him back up a small pace. "Excuse me?"

"You… you heard me! You said you wanted Sonic dead… and that's what's gonna happen. But I'm doing it my way!"

"You'll do it the way I want you to!"

"I'd like to see you make me, Egghead!" Tails said.

"STOP!" Sonic said loudly and firmly. Tails and Eggman froze.

"WHAT!" They yelled simultaneously.

"You two can do whatever you're doing later, but now, I want answers!"

"We're not holograms, fakes, robots, or any other fake version of ourselves you can think of! Good enough for you?" Tails snapped.

"C'mere." Sonic said threateningly to Tails.

"Why would I do that?"

Sonic lightened up a little. "I'm not going to try and hurt you, Tails. I want to know for sure if—if you really are what you are."

Understanding dawned on Tails. Sure, he felt anger towards Sonic, but that didn't mean he didn't know deep inside what Eggman had done to him to cause the aforementioned fact. He slowly walked up to Sonic. The hedgehog quickly grabbed Tails' arm, not roughly but firmly enough so that he couldn't get away. Tails didn't move. Just by being near him, a vague memory made its way to the front of Tails' mind, and although he couldn't control his hate towards Sonic, he knew that they were once friends – before Eggman had used the memory chip and Chaos Emerald powers to turn him against Sonic, they had been friends. And with this memory clearly in his head, Tails stood in front of Sonic without attacking.

Sonic continued examining Tails' hand and arm. The fur was there. At the top near the shoulder, he noticed, there appeared to be blood that was dried around the fur. He didn't know how Tails had gotten injured, and didn't focus on the idea for very long either. Probably just an accident. All that mattered was that he was looking at Tails' blood, and even if the Tails he'd seen before was a robot or a hologram, only one Tails had flesh and blood and that was the real one. That alone was enough for Sonic to understand that this was, indeed, Miles Prower, and he was now a loyal minion of Doctor Eggman.

Sonic gently released Tails' hand and closed his eyes. All the anger flooded back into Tails' mind, but he managed to stay still while Sonic spoke. "Eggman, I don't know how… somehow you did this to him!"

"What if I did? What are you going to do about it?"

Sonic, for once, was at a total loss for words.

"Tails, get over here!" Eggman ordered.

"No!" he responded immediately. For a split second, Sonic thought Tails was actually remembering that he was supposed to be against Eggman, and that maybe he would join with him again. That hope was shattered though, as Tails finished his statement. "I already said I'm sick of working in your shadow! An' I'm sick of the way you're treating me even though I'm trying my best! Forget working with you, I'll kill Sonic on my own!" Tails yelled. He was breathing heavy, furious breaths. He was begging Eggman to resist; he was ready for it.

And he did. "You think you're so smart, don't you? You're forgetting I can just lock the ship down and keep us all trapped in here as long as I please! You can't get away from me!"

"…And I can blow up the ship!" Tails countered as he ran to his control seat and put his finger on a square, white button that said 'WARNING: SELF DESTRUCT'.

Eggman swore under his breath.

"What'll it be, Eggman? You either get off or all three of us will die!"

"Yeah freaking right! I know your life is more important to you than my death. Stop fooling around, Tails!"

Tails pressed the button half way down. "You think I'm fooling around? Try me!"

"Tails—" Sonic started.

"Stay out of this! Eggman, get out of this ship and out of my sight!"

Left with no other options, Eggman went in the direction of his hovercraft and angrily used a missile to break the window and make a hole through which he could exit. Before he left, he whispered something that Tails didn't hear, but Sonic did: "You'll both be dead when this is over."

"Tails, snap out of it!" Sonic said, turning on him.

"I have four Chaos Emeralds right here and I'm not afraid to use them!" Tails said, taking all four Chaos Emeralds out of their places on the control panel and gathering them in his arms.

A bead of sweat dripped slowly down Sonic's face. He had to think of something, and fast. "If you know what's good for you, you'll give me those Chaos Emeralds now!" Sonic said, although he himself knew that he didn't fully mean it. He wasn't planning on seriously hurting Tails unless the fate of the world depended on it. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

"I'm never giving them to _you_!"

"You think?"

Tails looked perplexed. Sonic began zooming around the large control room in random directions at high speeds that made him almost invisible. Before Tails even had time to register this, Sonic ran in his direction and dove at him from behind, slamming him into the opposite wall with just enough force to cause the Chaos Emeralds to escape from his grip. Without hesitating, Sonic ran to collect them before Tails could. Once he did so, he stood in front of Tails, a smirk on his face. He felt somewhat sorry for attacking Tails, but given a choice, he wouldn't have done so. He had to get the Chaos Emeralds though.

Tails stood up, completely uninjured except for a forming bruise on his front. Sonic inwardly relaxed; his aim hadn't been to harm the fox, he just needed to get what he came for. And with his goal of getting the Chaos Emeralds completed, Sonic exited the control room and went off to find Knuckles. "He's in this giant ship somewhere… I only wish I knew if he found the Master Emerald. Sonic sped up and zoomed through the better part of the whole ship in less than five minutes, but failed to find Knuckles or the Master Emerald.

Sonic eventually found an exit to the top of the ship. He ascended through another latch door and landed smoothly on top of the huge fortress. The weather wasn't the greatest. It was stormy out, and the night was almost pitch black. The only thing that gave off light was an occasional flash of lightening.

He walked along the top of the ship cautiously. "Knuckles? Can you hear me?"

To his surprise, Knuckles was on top of the ship, too. "It's about time you got here!"

Sonic followed Knuckles' voice to his location. "Knuckles? Did you find the—"

"No, I didn't find the Master Emerald. The inside of that ship is so huge—below all those hallways is a whole 'nother area. He has automatic machines creating robots of all sizes! I don't know why. I have a strange suspicion the Master Emerald's in there somewhere, but I don't know where."

"Maybe Tails has it hidden somewhere we don't know about."

"Or Eggman."

"Nah. He, uh, left the fortress."

"What do you mean?"

"Tails turned against him, like half of all his other robots do. Eggman fled when Tails threatened to press the Self Destruct button to destroy the ship."

"He's planning on destroying the ship?"

"—Only if Eggman wouldn't have left. He wouldn't kill himself just to get rid of me." _At least, I don't think he would. _

"So now Tails is controlling the ship. What now?"

"I'm not sure, but I have a feeling we're not going to have much time to think about it." Sonic replied.

"Did you find anything out? Where'd you go, anyway?"

"I confronted Eggman. I didn't find out if he was a fake or not, but it really doesn't matter since he's not even here anymore. He was probably the actual Eggman though, because the Tails I saw was real. I could feel his fur. And I saw dried blood on his arm. Robots and holograms can't bleed."

"So… that means Tails really is against us after all."

"Yep. But that's the bad news. The good news is, I got the four Chaos Emeralds back!" Sonic said triumphantly, bring them into view.

"All right!"

"But still—we need to think of a way to get Tails to come to his senses. I don't know exactly how all of this happened, but I know the real Tails would never turn against me. I'm sure Eggman had something to do with it… I just don't know what." Sonic said, deep in thought.

"I'm all out of ideas. As far as I'm concerned… it seems like there's no way to bring the old Tails back." Knuckles said, sadness clearly audible in his voice for the first time since he had left Angel Island.

"We'll find a way!" Sonic said, although more to Tails than Knuckles, even though Tails couldn't hear him. "We'll find a way, Tails," he repeated. Then he turned his attention back towards Knuckles. "You were saying Eggman had a bunch of robots being made in that area on this ship?" Sonic said curiously.

"Yeah. And I mean a lot. So much it's not even funny." Through the darkness, Knuckles could see Sonic smirking. "I mean it, Sonic."

"Hmph. Maybe we'll get a chance to—" Sonic started.

Knuckles cut him off. "Sonic! Look down! We're losing altitude!"

Sonic peered off the edge of the ship. "But there's nothing wrong with this thing! Tails must be landing for some reason!" The ground seemed to be nearing rather quickly. Sonic and Knuckles were beginning to slide towards the front of the ship. They laid down at the same time and clung on to the ship as tightly as they could.

"Somehow, I don't think this is a good thing…" Knuckles said, sounding slightly unnerved.

"Well, we'll just have to wait and find out!" Sonic said. He grinned confidently as the ship slowed for a landing.

**Okay, that's 17 done! I'm in the mood now to just finish this fic. That way I can go on to the sequel! Yay! So that means you'll probably see pretty quick updates. Please review.**


	18. Chapter 18: Eight Thousand to Eight

This is my longest chapter yet!

**Hm, I got 6 reviews after submitting chapter 16, and for 17 I only got 2. Oh well, FFN works that way it seems. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. A lot of things happen! Anyway, go ahead and read… If you're still listening to me I don't know why because I really have nothing important to say right now, so here's chapter 18!**

CHAPTER 18: Eight Thousand to Eight

"We're nearing ground a bit faster than I thought we were!" Sonic said. When they were a distance from ground, it looked slow, but now that they were about to hit…

"Why isn't Tails slowing down? Is he trying to kill us all?"

Quite frankly, Sonic, for one, wouldn't have been too surprised if this was exactly what Tails was trying to do. "Brace yourself!" Sonic said.

Knuckles dug his namesakes into the ship, keeping a firm hold in his position. Sonic, on the other hand, who had no such ability, was thrown as the ship made rough impact with the cement, the resulting physical laws causing him to fall forward and off of the ship completely. He was afraid. The fall was a long one, and he had no way to stop himself. If Tails was in his normal state, he would've saved him, Sonic knew. But likewise, Tails wouldn't have crash-landed the Black Hawk, or for that matter, even be piloting it if he was in his normal state.

Bracing for impact, Sonic closed his eyes. He knew it wouldn't kill him, but it would sure cause him a heck of a lot of pain. Suddenly, the wind blowing against his face from the speed of the fall slowed drastically. The cement never came. Sonic opened his eyes to realize he was no longer falling, but being carried by someone. And that someone was…

"T—Tails?" Sonic stuttered, amazed, but at the same time completely and utterly confused. He felt like he was in a dream. No, this couldn't be true… it was too good to be true. Plus, it made absolutely no sense!

Sonic looked over at the window of the control room of the Black Hawk. So that's how Tails got out so fast after he landed the ship! The hole that Eggman made when he escaped.

But was this truly it? Was Tails… back to normal?

From the ship, Knuckles watched Tails propel Sonic up higher and higher. His jaw was dropped, and he was frozen in his position. Tails had just saved Sonic, after nearly causing him serious injuries by crashing the ship, and nearly causing him death a mere few hours ago. Did he overcome whatever was causing him to act against them?

Tails was silent. He wasn't looking at Sonic. Sonic wondered why he wouldn't say anything, but then decided to focus his attention on where Tails was taking him. Wherever he was taking him, he sure was going up high. He looked down, and wished he hadn't. The terrible truth hit him as Sonic realized Tails _wasn't _saving him at all. He was cutting the idea of Sonic getting injured and deciding just to kill him right then and there.

He was flying Sonic over the ocean.

"Oh man. I knew that would've been too easy. C'mon, Tails—don't do this. You'll regret it. Oh. Oh man! Tails, no! Tails!" Sonic pleaded. He wasn't one to show his fear very often, but water was his one exception. "Tails! What's wrong with you? We used to be friend, you know! One day, you'll remember. Tails… TAILS!"

"Good bye, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Tails sneered. He released Sonic's hands, and watched as Sonic fell yet again, with a look of pure triumph on his face.

"Why didn't he just let me hit the cement…" Sonic closed his eyes. He wasn't going to open them. He didn't want to see the water surround him. He was going to drown out here, and he knew it. His eyes were closed, and he knew he would never again see the light of day. It was over. He was going to die a slow, scary death as water filled his ears, nose, his mouth, his lungs—…

"SONIC!"

Sonic opened his eyes involuntarily. "Huh? Amy?" What was she doing here? Oh, duh, they were in Station Square! Amy must've seen the ship land. Cream was following, along with the chao, Cheese, as they struggled to keep up with Amy.

Just then Sonic sunk under the water, creating a splash that went twenty feet up.

"I'll save you, Sonic!" She yelled, running as fast as her skinny legs would allow. She shoved her way through the beachgoers that were trying to get away from the ship. She ran across the sand and into the water, splashing as she went.

"Amy, be careful!" Cream said, worried.

Amy ignored her and kept running. The water got deeper as she ran, and once it was causing her too much friction, she swam, fast. Filling her lungs with as much air as she could, she dunked her head under water and dove down. She could see Sonic slowly sinking. He wasn't panicking or thrashing; even he knew that would only make the situation worse. He was going to let Amy save him.

Amy continued kicking her legs and pushing the water behind her determinedly. She could almost reach his hand. Almost…

_I've.. got you…_

With one last hard lunge downward, Amy's hand made contact with Sonic's and both of their faces lit up. She knew they would be okay now. She gracefully turned around and headed back up untiringly. They had gone down farther than it seemed like they had. Both of them were struggling to hold their breath by now. That didn't faze Amy, though. She knew they were going to make it. They had to! Amy wondered if Sonic was okay. They had been under the water for nearly two minutes by now, and even that was quite a bit for Sonic. She didn't dare look at him though, not yet. She couldn't do anything that would slow them down. She kept swimming with her single free hand as she kicked her feet.

Again hoping Sonic hadn't passed out by now, Amy looked down at Sonic once, looked into his eyes. They were full of fear, for water was Sonic's greatest weakness. But there was something else in them. Trust? Or just self-confidence? It was one of the two, but she wasn't sure which.

_I can see the light, _she thought. She could see the sun up in the sky from her position in the water. She was almost there.

"Let's go, Cheese!" Cream said from the sand. She flapped her long ears frantically Cheese followed. She glided quickly out to the water where she supposed Amy and Sonic would be. "Amy! If you can hear me, I'll take Sonic back to the shore!" She yelled. "I'm so nervous! I hope Sonic is okay." She said to herself. She looked sadly at the water. "Huh?"

A shadow was appearing. Less than two seconds later, Amy burst out of the water with Sonic's right hand clamped in her left. She shifted her arm around Sonic so she could hold him above the water. Both of them gasped for breath. Thankfully, Sonic hadn't gotten inhaled any water. "Amy, Sonic! You're okay!"

"Well of course.. I couldn't let my hero—" She started, but was cut off by Sonic.

"OKAY? I'm in water, and I nearly drowned! You call that 'okay'?"

Cream hung her head. "I wasn't trying to anger you, Sonic."

"No, no.. it's my fault. I didn't mean to snap at you like that," Sonic said, realizing he'd lost his temper just as soon as it was too late. "Uh. Can we get out of here?"

Cream smiled and let herself glide down close to the water. "Here, Sonic! Let me take you to shore!" She said gently, offering him her hands.

Without hesitation, Sonic grabbed her outstretched hands with his own. "Thanks, Cream."

Cream flapped her ears harder, making up for the extra addition of Sonic's weight. She just barely managed to make it back to shore when she slumped down into the wet sand, releasing Sonic gently before doing so. Amy stepped onto the shore at the same time and wiped excess water off her dress. "Sonic!" She yelled, suddenly full of energy again. She ran for him and wrapped her arms around his neck before he had a chance to resist. Sonic stiffened automatically. "That was close! I thought you were going to drown…"

"Well I didn't!" Sonic said, slightly sharper than he had intended. "I—I'm okay, Amy. Relax." Sonic smiled kindly at her, hoping this would be enough for her to let go.

This hope was shattered, though. It just caused Amy to want to hold him tighter.

"Amy… do you mind? You're.. sort of choking me.. here." Sonic struggled with the words.

Amy backed off, satisfied. Sonic let out a sigh of relief and visibly relaxed.

Sonic looked around him, and then back at the ship. "Hey, where'd Tails go?"

"Sonic!" A familiar voice called. Eggman's Walker came full speed towards him. Sonic reflexively. But to his surprise, Eggman stopped about ten feet short from him. Sonic cocked his head, but still refused to believe that Eggman wasn't still up to his old tricks.

"Sonic!" Eggman repeated again. He climbed out of his machine and came towards him, falling to his knees in front of him as he grabbed Sonic's hand. "I need help! We've got to—"

But Eggman got no further before Sonic jerked his hand out of Eggman's, hard. "NEVER again." He said sternly.

Eggman disregarded this and continued. Tails is trying to kill both of us! You've got to help me!"

"I'm fighting for myself and my friends to stop Tails. Not for you. You caused this mess, anyway!"

"But he'll kill me, too!" Eggman protested.

"Hm… as much as I would miss having you around to effortlessly stop your plans… I wouldn't help you if the devil was chasing you!" Sonic said simply. "C'mon, doc, you're a _genius_!" Sonic said, coating the word 'genius' in sarcasm and venom before releasing it into the air. "If you need help because of Tails—that means you must think he _is _truly a greater genius than you after all!"

Knuckles than arrived on the scene. "What's going on here?" he demanded. He soon lost interest in a possible answer to this question as his attention caught something else. "Espio!"

Sonic looked over his shoulder. Espio was running towards them. Knuckles ran to meet him, but not in a friendly manner. They stopped in front of each other, and just stood there motionless for a few moments. Knuckles glowered at him, and then began to shake him by the shoulders violently. "You… you let him get the Master Emerald! Now Tails has it! Do you know what you've done?"

He had already apologized to Knuckles once, and explained that he'd tried his best. He wasn't going to deal with this. "Hands off." Espio lunged forward and shoved him backwards.

"How dare you…" Knuckles said.

"I already told you, what happened with the Master Emerald couldn't have been avoided."

Knuckles growled under his breath. "You don't seem to care much!"

"What do you mean by that?" Espio said calmly.

"Doesn't it matter to you that Tails has control over the Master Emerald now? Couldn't you have tried a little harder to stop that Egghead?" Knuckles grabbed him again, this time a little closer to the throat. "Above all else, don't you care about Tails at all? Geez, Espio! This is exactly why I never depend on anyone else! And the one time I do, they fail! Where were you when Eggman showed up?"

"I was… out… running a few.. errands.." Espio said nervously, the volume of his voice decreasing greatly.

From a short distance, Sonic could pinpoint the exact moment when Knuckles lost any and all control completely. And that happened about a split second before he lunged at Espio.

Espio could well understand why Knuckles was angered, but that was still not a good enough excuse for his behavior. He easily sidestepped to avoid Knuckles' attack. Then he whipped out his shuriken and tossed it up and down threateningly as Knuckles backed off. Now was a good time to act. In one swift move, he pinned Knuckles to the ground and pressed the shuriken on his chest, not with much force, but enough to unnerve the echidna slightly.

"Espio… you wouldn't kill me, would you?"

"I've learned a lot from Ninja training. I've learned to defend myself against people like you, who think they can just take their anger out on anyone around them. No, I wouldn't kill you. I'm no murderer. But I can injure you.

Knuckles didn't dare try and hit Espio. Strong fists or not, Espio could just put more pressure behind that shuriken, and he wasn't very fond of that idea. He did, however put his hands on Espio's, trying to keep the weapon away from his body.

Espio camouflaged. _Oh great! _Knuckles thought grimly. _I hate when he does that! I don't know where he is or what he's doing!_

All Knuckles could trust was his sense of touch. It was obvious Espio was still on him, and still had the shuriken pressed against him.

Sonic rushed over as soon as he saw what was happening. "Espio! Get off of him." Sonic commanded.

Amy and Cream arrived next to Sonic, along with Vector and Charmy, who surrounded them from the other side. All were looking at the echidna as he was, for once, in the losing position. Cream gasped in terror. Even Charmy looked somewhat worried. Sonic took another small step forward.

"What's this all about?" he said calmly, almost disappointedly. "What's happened has happened as far as the Master Emerald goes; we can't change that. We have to focus on the real enemy here! If we're fighting each other, we'll never win."

Espio removed the shuriken from it's place on Knuckles' chest, but didn't get off of him.

"Sonic's right!" Cream said, beating Amy to the exact same response. "How can you two fight when Tails is in danger? Even if he's our enemy right now, he's still in danger!"

"Yeah." Charmy said, the closest to serious-sounding any of them had ever heard him. "If we don't do something, he could stay evil for_ever_! And we won't be able to do it right if you two are beatin' each other up!"

Amy nodded her head in agreement. Everyone followed suite. To everyone's relief, Espio stood up and offered a hand to Knuckles, who flatly refused. "We need a plan. Tails obviously can't help what he's doing; I know Tails well enough to say that."

"We have to figure out what's causing all this. Eggma-an?" he called expectantly. Eggman had been watching from a safe distance. He walked over reluctantly. "Get explaining!" Sonic said with an undertone that stated he didn't want any crap.

"There is a way to stop him—" Eggman paused as everyone's eyes lit up hopefully. "—but it won't be easy. He has four of the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald now."

"Correction," Knuckles said. "He only has the Master Emerald. Sonic got back all the Chaos Emeralds."

"But he still has the Master Emerald. And as far as I know, that's plenty of power for him."

"So how can we stop him?" Sonic said, foot tapping impatiently, before he added, "Without killing him?"

"Like I said before, possible, but not easy. You see, I put a special robot device inside of him that—"

"Do I want to know _how _you got it inside of him?" Sonic asked, looking revolted.

"I cut him, darn it!" Eggman all but screamed. "_Anyway, _I put the device inside the cut, and what it did was send a message to his brain telling him he was against you, and siding with me!" Eggman said, gesturing towards Sonic.

"You sick, s—" Sonic started, but stopped himself as he remembered that Eggman was, technically, helping them. _But it's still his freaking fault! _Sonic thought.

Eggman continued, ignoring whatever it had been that Sonic was about to say. "The effects wore off, so I reinforced them with a Chaos Emerald shard that I cut from a piece of one of the Emeralds, and put that in his arm as well. I knew the negative energy Tails would use would cause him to feel even more hatred towards all of you, and it worked."

"Wait, back it up a few sentences doc." Sonic said, putting a hand up to stop him. "How can a little Chaos Emerald shard provide him with so much energy?"

"That power, combined with the effects of the robot chip, was enough to turn Tails against you almost completely. As far as I can tell, a small, small part of him remained pure. That was why I had to put the shard in his arm in the first place. That small part of his mind contained vague memories of when he was his normal self, and it was this part of his mind that helped him overpower the computer chip. Very little of the 'real' Tails remains. Since the chip caused him to feel anger towards you guys, he ended up using the negative powers of the Chaos Emerald shard to reinforce my plan, as I'd hoped."

All of them stared wordlessly at Eggman for the better part of a minute. This was only distracted by Cheese's cries of, "Chao, CHAO!" As he pointed towards the Black Hawk. Everyone turned and looked. Before them, thousands of robots were pouring out of the exit of the ship. Knuckles realized that these must be from the lower part of the Hawk's interior he saw before. As he looked up, he could see Tails in the control room yet again. He must be releasing the robots.

"You guys okay?" Sonic questioned, looking at Knuckles and then at Espio.

"We're cool." Knuckles said.

"Eggman."

"Ye-es?"

"We'll help you if you help us. Get in that crazy Walker of yours."

Eggman obeyed, though reluctantly.

"Let's do this!" Sonic said.

All eight of them, Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Espio, Charmy, Vector, and Eggman charged towards the armada of robots. "Bring it on!" Sonic said. "Let's do this, guys!"

Sonic began spin attacking along the ground, plowing through robots as he went. Knuckles followed in Sonic's direction and effortlessly punched holes through the robots. "These are no challenge!"

"Yeah, but there's strength in numbers," Espio called from a short distance. He seemed to be struggling. The robots were closing in on him already.

"Hold on, Espio!" Knuckles said. He punched a robot out of his way, the resulting force slamming it into another robot, which in turn fell backwards towards another, soon creating what looked like a row of dominoes falling backwards. The attack took out about ten robots total. "Cool!" Knuckles said, pausing for a brief moment before continuing towards Espio. "Take THIS!" Knuckles fired a fist at the back of one of the robots. It collapsed forward and Espio maneuvered around it, stopping next to Knuckles.

"We're outnumbered greatly!" Espio said.

"No kidding! But they're still no match for us. Soon they'll be a heap of scrap metal where these robots are."

"Where's everyone else? I can't see anyone over this mob!"

Knuckles looked around. Behind him he saw something blue dash up into the air and back down again. "Hey, Sonic!" He called. "You doing all right over there?"

"Yeah, just great!" Sonic said, somewhat sarcastically.

"Sonic, behind you," Espio warned.

A golden colored robot about Sonic's size grabbed him around the neck from behind him. Caught off guard, Sonic instinctively struggled to run forward. The robot held him firmly in place. Sonic inhaled as much air as he could in his current position and frantically hit whatever parts of the robot he could reach. Feeling his hand punch a hole somewhere in the stomach area, Sonic figured this would be as good of a time as any to try and escape. He swiftly dropped to his knees, trying to pull his head through the robot's hold. To his fortunate surprise, it worked! From the shadow above him, though, he could tell the robot was still persistently trying to attack him. With little options left, Sonic rolled off to the side, stood up, and zipped behind the robot in one swift move. The robot turned around just in time to see Sonic jump up in the air above him and aim a hard kick at his head. The bot landed on its back and skidded along the ground, causing a terrible screeching sound. Sonic put his hands over his ears momentarily, then jumped up in the air again and slammed down on the robot with both feet, putting it out of commission permanently.

"Sonic!" A fearful voice called from the distance.

Sonic turned towards the direction of the voice. "Huh? Amy! Cream!" Sonic darted over as fast as he could.

Amy was pinned to the ground by an exceptionally large robot. Cream was on the ground next to her, eyes closed. "Help us, Sonic!"

"Amy! What's wrong with Cream?"

"She's knocked out, Sonic! Unconscious! One of those metal heads struck her across the forehead."

"Hold on! I'll get you out of there."

Sonic didn't exactly how he could get the robot off Amy without hurting her in the process, so he settled for a hard shove. It wasn't a good choice, though.

The robot looked up, unmoved. Taking one hand off Amy, he released a missile from the end of it. It made contact with Sonic's left shoulder, sending him backwards forcefully. Sonic landed painfully on his left side, but immediately got back up nonetheless, growling under his breath. "Leave her alone, or you'll be sorry!"

Ignoring Sonic, the robot focused on Amy again, looking into her terrified eyes. He brought a hand up in the air, preparing to bring it down on Amy's head.

"No!" Sonic curled up into a ball and charged full-speed at his target. There was a loud clash as Sonic hit the side of the bot. He didn't stop there, though. Sonic plowed right through the robot, separating its top half from its bottom half. Sonic landed running. He looped back around in a flash and grabbed Amy and Cream, pulling them out of danger as the robot exploded.

"Amy, take care of Cream! I think she needs help."

"But, what about you? There's so many robots—" Amy started.

"What about Cream? Take her to a hospital. She doesn't look like she's going to come through any time soon."

"Okay, Sonic! Be careful!" Amy said as she turned to head in the opposite direction of the robots.

"Hurry up!" Sonic called after her. He turned abruptly and looked back at the mass of robots. It wasn't as large as before, and that was a sign that they were defeating them at a good pace. "There's Charmy and Vector. They could use some help." Without further thought, Sonic rushed back into the fleet of robots and towards the two Chaotix members. "Hey guys, where'd Espio go?"

"He's helpin' Knuckles!" Charmy said. "Uh-oh!" Two robots were rushing towards him from either side. "Heh, heh." Charmy smirked and flew up into the air, above the robot's reach. The two bots had put on too much speed to stop, causing them to crash into each other and blow up simultaneously. "Haha, take that, you creeps!"

"Sonic, willin' to lend us some help here?" Vector said impatiently as he punched a robot away from him. Sonic could tell that he was sweating a lot.

"You bet… but, uh, where did you say Knuckles was? I don't see him around here anywhere."

"I thought he was helping Espio…" Vector said, scratching his head.

"Nope. I can't find him either." Said a voice behind him. Vector jumped and whirred around reflexively. Nothing was there, or nothing that he could see. "Gosh, Espio, I hate when you do that!"

Espio came back into view. "Charmy, do us a favor and tell us if you can see Knuckles from up there."

Charmy flew up a bit higher and looked around. "Nope. Can't find him!"

"This could be a problem. He _is _our strongest fighter, you know." Espio admitted.

"Do you think he's okay?" Vector inquired.

"Let's hope so!" Sonic said.

Charmy landed on the ground. "Sorry guys, don't see 'im."

Sonic put his hand on his chin, thinking. Where could he have gone? Had Tails done something to him while no one was looking? Sonic didn't know. He only knew one thing. "He's gone."

**I love cliffhangers… I mean, ahem, uh, there's chapter 18 for you! The next chapter is second to last… it will be long like this one, and I want to take my time on the final two chapters so I can make them good, so be patient! Please review if you read! (I would think you read it if you're at the bottom of the page…).**


	19. Chapter 19: Tails' Metamorphosis

**This chapter is second to last! It's not the longest of all chapters, but it's still pretty good. Wow, can't believe I'm almost done already. Well, here's chapter 19, I hope you enjoy it! Please R&R!**

CHAPTER 19: Tails' Metamorphosis

"I'll find you!" Knuckles yelled as he ran through the halls of the ship. "I won't let you keep the Master Emerald!"

While Tails was distracted and watching Sonic and the others attempt to fight off the thousands of robots, Knuckles had climbed back on top of the ship and gone to the interior of the Black Hawk, searching frantically for the Master Emerald and hoping to find it before Tails realized he was searching. He had no such luck, though. For the last two hours he had been running through the ship's hallways, breaking into rooms, and basically looking everywhere he could in hopes to find what he was seeking. He had even taken one of the seven Chaos Emeralds with him into the ship, hoping he would get a signal. The others were on the Tornado, still.

"Tails must be keeping it in some special area that's immune to Chaos powers. Because if the Master Emerald is on this ship, which it should be, I would normally be getting a signal from the Chaos Emerald by now. Either that, or this ship is just a lot bigger than I thought it was." Then Knuckles realized that what he was holding wasn't what he thought it was. "Wait a minute, this is the counterfeit Emerald! Darn, of all the Chaos Emeralds I could've grabbed, it was the fake one I snatched. Man, that means all seven are still in the Tornado! I hope Sonic locked them away somewhere on there."

Knuckles kept running, actually somewhat grateful that this Emerald was the fake one. He knew that it didn't give off a signal as quickly as the real ones did; he'd have to get closer to the Master Emerald before that happened.

He ran faster. The quicker he found it, the better. He didn't get too far though, before he suddenly felt something make contact with his shin. Before he knew what happened, he was on the ground, flat on his face. Groaning with frustration, Knuckles stood up quickly and whirred around, attempting to find the obstacle in his path. "I tripped!" He stated. "What the heck? I swore I felt something hit me…"

"No duh, Knucklehead!" He heard a voice say quietly. Silent though it was, it seemed to echo eerily throughout the interior of the ship.

"Who's there!" Knuckles demanded rather than asked.

No answer.

"This isn't some game, you know! Show yourself!"

No answer.

Knuckles felt a small bead of sweat drip down his face. He knew the voice that had talked to him—he knew he did. But because of the odd faintness of it, not to mention the multiple echoes that followed it, he couldn't match it with a person. He was also rather anxious, which could have been part of the reason his memory was failing him at the moment.

"Where are you?" He yelled.

Still, no answer came. "WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU?"

Out in front of the Black Hawk, Sonic and Eggman stood alone. Amy had gone to seek help for Cream, whom she had with her, Knuckles was nowhere to be found, Espio and Vector were unconscious, and Charmy had fled a few minutes ago. Since then, Sonic had blown up every last Eggman robot. "That's the last of 'em," he stated, not looking at Eggman who was coming towards him in his mech. "Don't come near me for your own good. Got it?"

"Sonic, I'm trying to help. You could at least get along with an ally! Why don't you control your hatred towards me for once?"

"It's your fault Tails is in the state he's in. You expect me to refer to you as an ally?"

"Temporarily." Eggman admitted simply.

"Keep dreaming," Sonic told him curtly.

"Or, maybe I'll just join your side all together. I'm getting sick of trying to dominate the world. It never works. Maybe I'll just stop altogether." Eggman said seriously.

"Yeah, uh huh, right. You want me to believe that?"

"I'm telling you the truth, Sonic. I'll stop trying to take over the world."

Sonic was silent for a brief moment as he wondered if Eggman was really on the right level for once. "Yeah, if everyone agrees to join your little Eggman club, right?" Sonic said dryly. "Just drop it, already. I'm not as gullible as Knuckles."

"You thought for a second there that I was serious, didn't you Sonic? I should think one who's fought against someone for well over three years would know one's enemies well enough by now."

"I know you too well for one's comfort," Sonic replied dully. "I would rather not know you at all."

"Sonic, you don't really mean that—" Eggman started.

"Don't tell me what I do and don't mean, smart one!" Sonic snapped.

"Aren't we getting a little worked up, here?"

There was a sudden silence. "I should think I have a right to," Sonic replied with a threatening undertone that told Eggman not to push it any further.

"I just helped you defeat my own robots, Sonic—"

"Oh, don't give me that! Maybe I'd act differently if you'd actually done that out of the goodness of your heart, but you have no goodness in your heart!" There was a shocking silence. Sonic barely knew he had it in him to be that unforgiving. He continued. "You only helped me because you always depend on people when the going gets tough! It's I who helped you if anything! Whenever your enemy is winning, you back down and run away!"

"Better to be safe than sorry!" Eggman retorted.

"Really? So you think I am not as dangerous as you?" Sonic tested.

"I just know you won't kill me. After all, you haven't yet, have you?" Eggman asked rhetorically.

"That could change very, very soon!" Sonic said through clenched teeth.

"Why bother making a threat you won't carry out, Sonic?"

"I don't know! I guess I should've known you well enough to see that your threats never get carried out either." Sonic pointed out.

"That could change! I'm really getting sick of sparing you, you know! I guarantee I'll put an end to you one day!"

Sonic snorted. "Hmph! Why bother making threats you won't carry out, doc?" He said shortly. After another brief pause, Sonic looked back over at Eggman. "That precious fortress of yours will be promptly turned to ashes as soon as Tails is out of it."

"No matter…" Eggman muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

Eggman cursed inwardly. "What was what? I didn't say anything."

"Hmph." Sonic muttered, refusing to believe Eggman for a second. "I'm going to see if Cream's all right." He declared. "And as soon as I get back, you're helping me find my way through that messed up death trap of yours so I can find Tails. I'll bet he's still in there somewhere." Sonic ran off before Eggman had a chance to protest.

"I'll find you," Knuckles said angrily. The voice had been chasing him around for the last ten minutes, and he had still failed to find whom the voice belonged to. Frustrated, uneasy, and somewhat scared for one of the very few times in his life, Knuckles slammed his fist into the wall next to him. To his unfortunate surprise, the wall was much thinner than he'd expected, and the momentum of his punch caused him to fall forward, breaking through the rest of the wall in the process.

Flat on his face once more, and now covered in an exceptional amount of scrapes and cuts, Knuckles lifted his head. Before him was a dark hallway, and a long one at that. He cautiously stood up. "Huh? What's that?" He asked, somewhat calmer. There was a strange glow at the very end of the hallway. It was the only thing that lit up that area. Everything else was pitch black. Looking down at the fake Chaos Emerald in hand, Knuckles gasped. It was glowing. "The Master Emerald..!" He breathed. He began jogging towards the direction of the glow that he knew was the Master Emerald. After a while, it didn't seem to be getting any closer. "This hallway is… long! It must go from the front of the ship all the way to the back."

"Turn back! Now!" The voice called again, with the same petrifying echo. Knuckles jumped as the words reached his ears. They seemed somewhat clearer this time. He could just about put his finger on who they belonged to…

"Argh… Never! I'm getting the Master Emerald and you can't stop me, Tails!" He said firmly. He gasped. "Tails!" He repeated. How could he have not recognized the voice of the young fox? Maybe… maybe it was just because he wasn't used to hearing Tails talk in a cruel or evil way yet. He stopped abruptly. "Tails—why are you doing this?" Knuckles shook his head.

"I have to defeat Sonic the Hedgehog once and for all!" Tails replied.

Knuckles remained silent for a few moments. Although he himself didn't like Sonic much, there was no reason for Tails to dislike him as well. "Why? What'd he ever do to you besides be your friend?"

No answer.

"Tails, don't you realize Eggman's done this to you? It's his fault you want to defeat Sonic!"

When Tails remained silent, Knuckles started walking towards the Master Emerald again.

"I don't think so!" He yelled. Knuckles only went faster.

"Tails, darn it, we're trying to help you!" Knuckles yelled desperately.

"You expect me to believe that?" He all but shrieked.

"You know I'm not a liar." Knuckles said calmly, almost sympathetically.

"Just shut up!" Tails said simply.

"Tails, where are you?" Knuckles said, looking frantically all around him, only to see the infinite darkness of the hallway.

"I'm right here!" Tails' voice sounded near this time. He had come closer. The true words reached Knuckles' eardrums this time, not the echoes. Yes, Tails was indeed very close to him.

Shock hit the echidna as this understanding dawned on him. Of course… he couldn't see anything. And that meant that if Tails was now only a few feet away from him, he wouldn't notice. No sooner had he realized this when he heard a rapid beating sound. It was a sound that he recognized, the sound of two tails spinning. A sharp kick to the center of his stomach followed that, and threw the echidna to the ground. "You.. certainly are a good fighter when you want to be!" Knuckles admitted. He had never seemed to notice this fact before simply because he and Sonic were stronger than Tails. But that didn't mean Tails wasn't strong at all. In fact, Knuckles had an odd feeling Tails had the upper edge right now. Not only was he smart, but as far as Knuckles could tell, Tails could see a lot better in the dark than he could if he had managed to hit his target so precisely.

Pausing to think for this long was a mistake Knuckles instantly regretted as a sharp pain pierced him in the side. He winced and put both hands over the respective area. "Tails—" Knuckles said, referring more to the body part on the fox he knew had just attacked him than his opponent's name.

"Give up yet?"

"Hmph! You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Knuckles said, smirking slightly. "Bring it!" He ran in the direction he assumed Tails was in and aimed a punch. Nothing was in front of him though, and his momentum once again forced him to the ground.

"If you're going to fight me, at least be a little less clumsy! You make it boring!"

Knuckles struggled to stand back up, but was only shoved back down on his front by Tails as he stopped spinning his namesakes and crashed down on top of him.

Knuckles growled a few choice words under his breath before quickly rolling towards the wall. Tails still clung onto Knuckles as he tried to hit him with his fists. Luckily for the echidna, they didn't do much damage. Still rolling, Knuckles slammed Tails into the wall hard with his back and stood up immediately. Without hesitation, he kicked Tails in the chest with a considerable amount of force and started to run towards the glow of the Master Emerald. "Hmph! You're not stronger than me Tails, and you know it! So stop trying to be someone you're not!" Knuckles realized as he said this that he meant it in more than one way. Not only did Tails seem to have it in his head that he was more powerful than Knuckles, but of course, he had crossed sides. Knuckles still didn't understand what had caused this, but he had a sure feeling that it wasn't Tails' fault.

Tails watched him go. "No…" he breathed. He was shaking, and feeling very weak. But he wasn't ready to give up just yet. "NO!" Tails bolted up while spinning his namesakes for flight, and threw himself into Knuckles. Both of them went sprawling on the ground, coming to a stop a mere ten feet from the Master Emerald. Standing up, Knuckles grabbed Tails by the wrist and hurtled him at the wall.

"Ah!" The whole area seemed to vibrate as Tails hit the wall. He fell to the ground, nearly unconscious. "You…"

"I what? Go ahead and finish it. I dare you."

Tails struggled to stand up, but only fell back down again. "You think this is over… don't you?"

Knuckles just snickered. "Why is it that whenever the bad guy loses, they still act all tough and strong and say they're the best? You lost, Tails. I'm taking the Master Emerald with me.

"I mean it, Knuckles. I said it's not over and I mean it," Tails said weakly. "The Master Emerald is mine now… I'm going to destroy you… and Sonic… before any of us are too much older!" Tails said, his voice steadily rising. A red aura surrounded the vulpine as he stood up.

"What? What's happening to you?" Knuckles shrieked, involuntarily taking a step backwards. He cursed himself for his weakness during that moment.

"I would think you should know, Emerald Guardian!"

Knuckles jerked his head in the direction of the Master Emerald. It was shining bright, rising off the ground ever so slightly. It began to spin. Tails' fur slowly turned from his original golden color to a dark brownish red. The tips of the white fur on his mustache and chest rose and pointed upward. His namesakes seemed to get slightly larger. His eyes slowly changed to a darker shade of blue. He closed them in concentration. He shook as he allowed the power of the Master Emerald to take over his body, his mind. The sensation of warmth brought pleasure to the fox, something he hadn't felt in a long time. "Hm… hm… hm…" he began to laugh quietly, evilly. "This is it. Sonic will finally come to an end. And so will you!" The fox rose off of the ground slowly, his tails waving lightly in the air behind him. He opened his eyes as the process of metamorphosis finished. He was now a dark incarnation of his super form.

**Dark Tails. I've been waiting to do that. Heh, one last chapter to go! Then on to the sequel. I might take a bit longer to type up the final chapter. I want it to be the best I can make it! The prologue for the sequel will be up the same time the last chapter of this story is put up, just to let you know. Thanks for reading and please review.**


	20. Chapter 20: Last Chance, Final Choice

**W00t! YEAH! I've been trying all day to put this up, darn it! I wanted to to get it up on Sonic's 15th anniversary... there's no better time than today! But I kept getting error messages... but now it worked! YES!**

**Okay, ignore that**

**Man, last chapter already? …sniff I'm gonna miss typing this story! Oh well, I'm making a sequel, so who cares?**

**Anyway, this chapter includes a conversation about the Super Emeralds just to let you know ahead of time. I'm telling you this now so that when you read it, you don't think "What? But that doesn't make sense!" Because it does make sense, because like I said at the beginning of the first chapter, this story takes place before Sonic Adventure, which should also tell you that I made it so this story takes place in the game storyline. And the Super Emeralds are in the game storyline. If you know the storyline of Sonic 3 & Knuckles well enough, this will make perfect sense. If not, well, it doesn't really matter… it's not too hard to understand once you read what I typed.**

**Also, don't forget the prologue for the sequel is now UP! I won't start the actual chapters for 2 or 3 weeks; I want to get some chunks of it written first and get it off to a good start. The story will be titled, "A New Hero Rises", if anyone cares.**

**Okay, enough talking! Oh wait, one last thing… a big thank you to all of my reviewers: **Maverick87, Shelfkid91, Magnatron, sassy, Skydust, CrystalRose727, Cap'n Cryssalid, Gemeni9000, Tucker's Mayflower, Kelessic, captain deoxys, Volt the Hedgehog, Taryn Wander'r, Professor Ken, and tailslover666**! Thankies for reviewing! Tell me if I spelled someone's name wrong.**

**And most of you have probably noticed this: if you've reviewed my story, I have most likely reviewed yours (if it's a Sonic fic), and I will continue to do so throughout the sequel. So if you review, you'll most likely get a review in return! I have a lot of free time on my hands, so what better way to find good Sonic stories?**

**OKAY… Now for the final chapter of Capture the Fox!**

CHAPTER 20: Last Chance; Final Choice

"Still think you're going to stop _me_?" Tails asked.

"Tails. I don't know what's going through that messed up mind of yours right now… what's causing you to feel this way towards me and Sonic all the sudden. But I can't let you get away with this!" Knuckles said weakly.

Tails just laughed quietly. "Get out of my ship."

"Why don't you make me?"

"You are being stupid, Knuckles, but then again… who would be surprised?" Tails walked toward him slowly, threateningly.

"What… What are you doing? Keep away from me!"

Ignoring Knuckles' words, Tails brought a hand up in the air. "I'll be back to deal with you after Sonic is dead… but for now…" Tails stopped and slammed his hand down on Knuckles' head.

From outside of the ship, as he returned, Sonic heard him scream. "Knuckles!" he yelled. "So, he is in that ship! And Tails must be, to! And I already know the Master Emerald's in there somewhere."

"You are correct Sonic." Eggman said. I assume they are fighting for it right now. But unfortunately, Tails will win, if he hasn't already."

"Yeah? How would you know?"

"I was the one who taught him what he needed to know to defeat you guys. Obviously, I'm against him now, but he still knows what he knows."

"As strong as he is, I highly doubt he could beat Knuckles in a hand-to-hand combat." Sonic admitted. He very well knew Knuckles' strength by now.

"Maybe not alone… but with a little help he sure could!" Eggman regretted his words as he saw the infuriated look on Sonic's face. "No, not like that!"

"You tricked me! You're still helping him, aren't you? You two had this whole scam set up—"

"Sonic, whether I would set you up like this doesn't matter… I would _never _let that freak fly _my _ship! That's proof enough right there! And do you really think I would let him treat me the way he did?"

"As far as I can tell, yeah, since you've let him get away with it so far. I'd would'a thought a _genius _like you should have known how to stop Tails." Sonic paused and let Eggman think about this for a minute before saying, "So, what is this so called 'help' Tails is getting?"

"That would be the Master Emerald." Eggman replied.

Shock, fear, and understanding hit Sonic all at the same time. "_What?"_

"You heard me right, hedgehog!" Eggman snapped. "Why do you think I wanted to get the Master Emerald so badly before? I knew the Chaos Emeralds wouldn't have been enough to provide Tails with the proper power to transform into his super form. I was trying to get the Chaos Emeralds to help power my ship. Only the Super Emeralds and the Master Emerald are strong enough to give Tails the power he needs to transform. And the Super Emeralds have not been seen since you, Tails, and Knuckles last used them to stop me two years ago. Therefore, my only other option was the Master Emerald."

"How come the Chaos Emeralds don't do the job, anyway?"

"As far as I can tell, Tails can't utilize enough power from them as he is not as experienced with them as he was with the Super Emeralds."

"So… that means Tails has some sort of connection with the Super Emeralds that we don't know about!" Sonic said.

"That is quite possible. After all, from what I can recall, you and Knuckles had a much harder time getting a grip on the powers of the Super Emeralds than Tails did. You two seem more adept at using the Chaos Emeralds. This is most likely because you have been using them to aid you ever since you first met me, and Knuckles… well, he guards the Master Emerald. I should think he knows much about the Chaos Emeralds. But Tails… I don't know where he got his experience with the Super Emeralds from."

"Argh… why am I even asking? I can figure that out later. I've got to go see what Knuckles and Tails are up to in there!" Sonic ran off toward the Black Hawk without another word. He jumped in the air and charged toward the exterior, literally breaking an entrance. "Hey! Knuckles!" He called. "Where are you?" Knuckles didn't answer. "That can't be good!" Sonic increased speed and turned a corner, only to see that where there had once been a wall, there was a large hole. He continued through it. He slowed down and eventually stopped and stared at what was in front of him.

A long hallway.

At the end of it were two glowing figures. "One of 'em's got to be the Master Emerald!" Sonic thought aloud to himself. Suspicion and curiosity moved Sonic forward. He dashed forward and arrived at the two glowing figures in question some ten seconds later. "Tails!" Sonic said, wide-eyed. Eggman had been right. Tails turned in his direction.

"Sonic."

"Tails, I've had enough! Who do you think you are?" Sonic demanded. "Because I'd really like to know why you're acting this way!" Sonic knew the situation was most likely beyond Tails' control. But still, he couldn't help but feel angry. Almost like his best friend had betrayed him.

Sonic didn't wait for an answer. He dropped one shoulder and leaned to his left. As he expected, Tails leaned to his own right as if to try and block Sonic. _Perfect! _Before Tails could blink, Sonic ran slightly to the right to avoid Tails, jumped, and dove for the Master Emerald. He was a mere six inches away from touching it when something suddenly smacked him hard across the face.

One of Tails' tails.

Sonic was slammed backwards against the wall, stunned and in pain. He slowly put a hand to his face where Tails' right namesake had made contact and let it drop helplessly on to his lap again. He looked at it. It was covered in blood.

But while he was physically injured and too dazed to move at the moment, his mind was working frantically. _Darn… he's in super form! I should've known that would hurt a lot… man, how can I stop him now? He's like, 'Dark Tails'… I have to think up something… C'mon Sonic, you've known Tails long enough, what're his weaknesses?_

Then he noticed something laying limply behind the Master Emerald. "Knuckles," he said quietly. He suddenly felt sick as he realized that Tails must've used the power of the Master Emerald against Knuckles. "Tails…"

"That's right. He's dead. Do you want the same thing to happen to you, Sonic?" Tails paused for a moment, but not long enough to let Sonic answer. "If not, then don't EVER try and stop me again! You either give up being the hero, or you give up your life!"

Sonic looked more closely at Knuckles. Was Tails really telling the truth? "Yeah, right. His chest is moving, genius! Knuckles isn't quite _that _weak. Even I know that."

"I can fix that if you wish." Tails warned.

"But I thought… wasn't it _me _you wanted to kill?" Sonic questioned, smirking a little. If this was the only way to keep Knuckles from dying then so be it. "C'mon, _pal, _bring it on!"

"You're making a mistake, Sonic!" Tails drifted forward slightly, then made an unexpected dive for Sonic.

"I think that's my cue to run!" Sonic turned tail and headed back in the direction he had come from. Tails chased after him.

The dark fox darted upwards so that he was nearly touching the ceiling. He spun his namesakes like blades, whipping the ceiling above him, causing chunks of it to rain on Sonic. "Ha! Take this!"

Sonic only ran faster. After all, Tails couldn't attack him if he couldn't keep up with him! "Ha, it takes a lot more than that to bring me down, buddy! I thought you knew that by now!" Sonic curled up and rolled smoothly and swiftly on the ground at such high speeds, sparks emitted from it. He blasted through the front of the Black Hawk to the outside, creating a hole that Tails only made bigger by following him through it. Sonic looped around and headed straight for the fox, still spin dashing. At the same time, Tails charged toward him with his tails turned, and spinning fast.

Both of them were thrown backwards as attack met attack. Tails was slammed back into the side of the Black Hawk, while Sonic hit the damp sand near the lake water and slid a full twenty feet, burying himself even deeper in the sand in the process before coming to a stop. "Urgh…" Sonic sat up and wiped the sand off of himself before pushing himself up.

Tails was already recovered, and was aiming a kick in Sonic's direction. Sonic simply sidestepped to avoid it. He jumped in the air as Tails turned around. "Is this what you meant to do?" He attempted to whip his foot across Tails' face, but with Tails' powers and reflexes enhanced as they were, he knew he would be able to avoid the attack. Tails grabbed Sonic's attacking leg in midair and slammed it on the ground, naturally slamming Sonic down in the process. Tails dropped one of his own knees to the ground in a half-kneeling position and used one hand to hold Sonic's leg in place, the other hand to put pressure on Sonic's knee.

Sonic groaned and fought to escape, but had no success. He struggled to reach Tails' hand without increasing the feeling of pressure on his leg. With difficulty, he managed to get a firm grip on it. He began prying at his fingers roughly. Still with no success, Sonic settled for a hard punch across the jaw. Tails was caught off guard, and his grip on Sonic's leg was loosened. Feeling that this was the best time, Sonic yanked his leg out of Tails' grasp, clumsily stood up, and ran.

"Huh?" Sonic said as something caught his eye. He smiled upon looking directly at it. "I knew he would survive!" On top of the Black Hawk, standing with all seven Chaos Emeralds in his hands, was Knuckles. He was leaning on the Master Emerald, smiling, and looking completely unharmed. To Sonic, he looked like he was in better condition than he'd been since he left Angel Island.

"Thought it was over for me, eh?" Knuckles said softly.

"No! I would've gotten you out, but…" Sonic paused, trying to think up a good way to explain the fact that Tails had practically beaten and forced Sonic out of the ship before he could get to Knuckles—without ruining his reputation in Knuckles' eyes (which was probably bad enough already most of the time, Sonic thought).

"Hey, no hard feelings!" Knuckles said. Sonic opened his mouth as if to ask something. Seeing the question coming, Knuckles put a hand up. "I came to, used what was left of the Master Emerald's power to heal myself, climbed up here, got in the Tornado, and dug out the seven Chaos Emeralds. Answer your question?"

Sonic nodded. "Hey, uh, you think you could bring those here?" Sonic asked, pointing to the Chaos Emeralds safely secured in Knuckles' arms.

Nodding, Knuckles jumped off the ship and let his dreadlocks slow his fall. He landed smoothly on the ground.

"You're not getting near those, Sonic!"

Sonic turned just in time to see Tails lunge at him forcefully. He again took Sonic to the ground, pinning his knees with his own, and pinning his hands with his own. He moved his face so close to Sonic's that there noses were nearly touching. "This is the end for you, Sonic!"

"You think so, don't you?" Sonic said, grinning. "C'mon pal, I've gotten out of tighter jams!"

"Your arms and legs are pinned. Just how do you think you're going to escape me when I'm so much more powerful than you?" Tails said, his lips twisting into a sick smile.

"Like THIS!" At the same time he spoke the words, Sonic slammed his head into Tails'. The fox instinctively brought his hands to his now bleeding nose, and Sonic took the opportunity to use his arms and push Tails off of him. Sonic backed away, did a backwards somersault, stood up as his feet made contact with the ground. "Pretty impressive, huh?"

"Son-ic!" Knuckles yelled impatiently. "Stop fooling around. You're not going to be able to stop him without these Chaos Emeralds, you know that!"

"Yeah, guess you're right," Sonic said. But he knew he needed to put Tails out of commission for a few seconds first, that way he wouldn't get in the way while he was transforming to his super form. "I need you to stall off Tails while I transform, got it?"

"No problem."

"Great! Let's do it." Sonic dashed over to Knuckles and quickly snatched the seven Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles ran in Tails' direction.

"You're through!"

"Bring it on, Knucklehead!"

Tails hurled himself at Knuckles. "Oh yeah?" Knuckles whispered. "Take this!" He caught hold of one of Tails' namesakes and used his momentum to spin him around wildly twice before releasing him towards the water. Tails landed with a painful splash.

Behind him, Sonic was beginning to hover off the ground. His eyes were closed. His elbows were slightly bent, and his hands were splayed at his sides, palms pointing up at the sky. His quills rose on end. A golden aura surrounded him. He could feel the warm power of the seven Chaos Emeralds filling him up; could feel their energy rushing throughout his body. He smiled. It was a wonderful feeling; a great experience to feel the pleasure of the Chaos energy as it overflowed his system. Any pain he may have been in before from Tails' attacks was now gone, any fatigue that he had felt was now deceased. The power of the Chaos Emeralds left no room for weakness in his system. Sonic felt empowered.

From where they were, Tails and Knuckles paused to watch Sonic. By now, Amy and Cream had returned, and Vector and Espio were conscious.

Sonic crossed his arms in front of his chest as if to gather more power from the Chaos Emeralds. He opened his eyes and blasted up into the air, raising his arms up at the same time. A blast of golden flames engulfed the area around him, and his now golden fur shined bright. "I'm ready now."

Tails continued staring at him.

"Tails, it's your choice. Either come to your senses or I'll have to put a stop to all this myself. I suggest you choose the first option."

"I'd like to see you try and stop me!" Tails challenged.

"Tails, I'm warning you now, you'll be sorry!" Sonic said. "I'm giving you one last chance, Tails."

"Sonic, Tails, please!" A shaking voice interrupted. Sonic and Tails looked back at the street to see whom the voice in question belonged to.

It was Amy. She had tears in her eyes. "I never thought it would come to this! I don't want to see either of you get hurt! Tails, please… I know you probably can't help what you're doing because I know you would never purposefully do something like this… but please just try and remember!"

"Don't bother with that!" Tails snapped. "I've made my decision! Sonic's coming to an end!"

Knuckles ran closer to the two of them. "But Tails, Sonic will defeat you if you don't stop. Don't you know? When it comes to Chaos Energy, the power of caring and good purpose always overcomes the power of hate and anger! Sonic's attacks can destroy yours!"

"Hmph! I don't believe you!"

"Tails, you're making a big mistake!" Knuckles protested.

Tails only ignored him.

"You sure are stubborn, aren't you?" Sonic asked rhetorically.

"…I've had enough of this!" Tails lunged for Sonic again, but Sonic easily shoved Tails back.

"My turn!" Sonic said. He darted forward towards Tails, slicing through the air. He aimed both hands in Tails' direction, and at the last split second, broke into a hard spin dash. He made contact with Tails, grinding up against his center relentlessly. After a mere ten seconds of this, Tails was screaming.

Sonic backed off. "Had enough yet?"

"Hmph! You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Tails charged. Sonic charged. But before the hedgehog had a chance to attack, Tails had already decided his move. He turned his backside towards Sonic and attempted to slice through him with his spinning tails. Sonic had no time to react or turn around, not at his current velocity. He met the attack painfully, getting caught in Tails' namesakes. They twirled him around and threw him backwards into a nearby building. It cracked as he slammed into it. But Sonic, having the power he did right now, remained unharmed for the most part. He gently pushed himself off of the building, and moved slowly towards Tails, a smile on his face that said he wasn't going to go down easily. "Well Tails, I'll admit you're pretty strong… but not strong enough. Unless you want to change your mind right now, it's over."

"I'll never give up!" Tails replied fiercely.

Sonic had hoped Tails would come to his senses, but there was no such luck. It looked like this would have to end the bad way. "I'm sorry Tails. I don't want to do this, but you've left me with no other choice. Up until now I've gone easy on you; I've been patient. But I can't let you destroy the world, conquer it, or whatever you have planned in that messed up mind of yours." Sonic said calmly. He didn't sound quite devastated, but his voice had a hint of a sad undertone in it, something that rarely came from Sonic. "We used to be friends. I guess you don't remember that, or don't care. But I can't take this any longer. I can't watch you become more and more evil. It just doesn't seem like you, Tails. And I'm not going to stand by and let you do whatever you want with the world either. You had your chance, but I guess you're just too stubborn to give up."

Tails was silent. He appeared to be thinking it over. "Lies… I am not your friend, nor was I ever!" Tails replied. He knew this wasn't true... deep inside, he knew. But only vaguely. "I'll never give up on my goal! I'll defeat you once and for all… that way there will be no one in my way on my quest for power!"

"Really? And why is it that you want power?"

"I can defeat anyone in my way… I can do whatever I want in the world! I could destroy it!" Tails replied.

"Sorry, but I don't think so!" Sonic corrected him. "Up till now I've waited, Tails. But you've gone to far!" Sonic's aura grew brighter as he clenched his fists, gathering power for his final attack. He rose higher into the air. Within seconds, his golden color was so bright that everyone nearby had to either close their eyes or shield them. His whole body seemed to vibrating. He was more powerful than ever before.

Down below, Knuckles watched in awe. "How's he getting that much power… I've never seen anything like this!" Knuckles stared at Sonic, then looked back on top of the ship, where the Master Emerald was. It was shining bright, so bright that it almost looked white. Even from where he was, Knuckles could see it beginning to crack. "No way! He's drawing on the powers of the Master Emerald! And he's already got the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds… I hope that's not too much power for him to control!"

Sonic squeezed his eyes shut. The energy of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds combined was almost too much. It reminded him of the day he transformed into his hyper form—the Master Emerald, like the Super Emeralds, contained a lot of power. He was going through the same sensation he had when he used the Super Emeralds to help him stop Dr. Eggman and the Death Egg. Sonic continued gathering energy. In his Super form, dark incarnation or otherwise, Tails was strong. He knew it would take a lot of energy to stop him. _I only wish I didn't have to do this to him, though. _Sonic remembered way back four years ago, when he'd first met the young fox on Westside Island. It was a good memory, but now all the good times he'd had with his best friend were going to go out the window.

Sonic opened his eyes. This was it. "The time has come, Tails." He paused as if to give Tails one last chance.

Tails said nothing.

"I'll miss you as a friend, but not as the person you are now." Sonic paused. "That's all I've got to say. I'm sorry it came down to this. I know whatever's going through your head right now probably isn't your fault. But it doesn't change the fact that I've got to put a stop to this. Knuckles, Amy, Cream, all you guys… get out of here. I don't want you to get hurt. Actually, Knuckles, take the Tornado back to Tails' workshop."

All of them obeyed immediately. Knuckles glided to a safe distance, Vector and Espio sadly headed back to their headquarters, and Amy and Cream ran off crying.

Sonic turned his attention back at Tails, and focused all his energy, closing his eyes again. "Get ready for a real Sonic Boom!" Sonic dashed forward, closing off some of the distance between him and Tails. Fists still clenched, he spun around quickly, opened his eyes, and opened his hands, throwing them forward in Tails' direction, releasing all his energy.

Throughout Station Square, the explosion was heard.

Tails was thrown back and the dark red aura surrounding him vanished, causing him to immediately return to his normal form. He hit the ground with devastating impact. The flames of the explosion scorched his skin. "Ahhh! No!" He bellowed in miserable defeat.

Sonic watched as the explosion shook the city and destroyed buildings. He could not see what was happening to Tails through the whiteness, for he to was caught in the explosion. He had gathered extra power from the Master Emerald for a reason though, and that was to maintain his super form so that he wouldn't get injured during the explosion.

"Tails—…"

Sonic waited until the explosion cleared some five minutes later. Buildings lay in piles of ashes on the ground. The Black Hawk was torn apart. The Master Emerald was shattered, and the Chaos Emeralds were just barely glowing. Sonic let himself fall slowly to the ground, but he remained in his super form. He looked around him for any sign of Tails, hoping that maybe, just _maybe_, he had survived to explosion. He saw nothing but the scorched area. He looked up at the sky. Maybe Tails had flown away to avoid the explosion? No. All Sonic saw were the pink and purple clouds and the orange sky as the sun set.

Knuckles, Amy, and the others came running back to the scene from behind Sonic. Knuckles and the Chaotix Detective Agency remained silent. Cream fell to her knees crying. Amy raced over and hugged Sonic, crying as well. "I'm so glad you're okay… but Tails…. Sonic, we'll never see him again!"

Sonic returned Amy's hug. "I know." He said quietly. "But we had no choice."

Amy backed off. Sonic turned away from the others, facing the area where he had caused the explosion. The street in that area was nothing more than a big black mark. Sonic hung his head.

"Hey, Sonic, what's that?" Knuckles asked, pointing over to the edge of the sand.

"Huh? What's what?"

"It looks like there's something buried there."

Sonic looked closer. His stomach jolted. "It's Tails. He's still in one piece."

"Is he… alive?" Amy asked, her voice shaking.

"I'm…. not sure…" Sonic walked slowly over to the area. He wasn't so sure he wanted to know the answer to Amy's question. As he approached the area, he saw that the fox's eyes were closed. That was all he could see though; the rest of the young kit was covered in sand. He gently wiped it away until all of it was gone, taking his time. After about five minutes, he could see Tails clearly. He put a hand on his chest. And waited. _He's dead, _a voice said to him in his head. "No, he's not," Sonic spoke aloud. "You guys!" He turned to face his friends. They all perked up immediately, seeing Sonic smile. "I feel a heartbeat. He is alive."

Sonic looked back down at Tails. Placing both hands on him, Sonic closed his eyes in concentration. A few seconds later, a green glow surrounded them momentarily, healing Tails enough for him to come conscious. This taking all of the Chaos energy Sonic had left, he returned to his normal, dark blue form. "He's going to be okay as far as physical conditions go," he called back Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and the Chaotix Detective Agency. "…Only, I don't know if he'll ever be his true self again. We'll have to wait and see. If not, we'll be able to manage that for now… he may be partially healed, but he's still weak right now. He won't be fighting for a while."

Sonic looked back down at Tails. He removed his hands from Tails' center, and the green glow disappeared. "Tails? Can you hear me?"

"S—Sonic?"

"Are you okay?"

Tails opened his eyes. "Get off 'a me!" He snapped. Sonic jumped, taken aback by this response. Everyone's heart sank. Tails was still bent on killing Sonic. "This isn't over, you know!"

"Tails, listen to me." Sonic said, grinning. "Just listen to me, and if you don't have anything good to say about what I'm going to say, then I'll stop bugging you. You can be whoever you want to be, but hear me out first."

"Make it snappy!"

"All I want to say is that we used to be best friends, and whether you remember it or not doesn't matter right now; facts are facts. You always used to help me stop Eggman, not turn against me. Please, just do this for me: Just try and remember. Have you forgotten what it was like when we first met? You said everyone picked on you. And that day you started following me through the forest because you admired my speed. Remember? And after that we became best friends. Since then we've always been friends, and I don't want that to end now. I was your first real friend, and you've always been a good friend to me, too. Things can go back to normal if you only trust me, Tails."

Tails thought. He closed his eyes. He tried to remember, tried to recall the things that Sonic had told him actually happening. _I am Sonic's friend… aren't I… _He thought quietly to himself. As Sonic told him this, he remembered one thing: That he never should have turned against him at all. That he really was the hedgehog's best friend. And it was this special memory that seemed to trigger all his other memories as the real Tails broke through and overcame the power of the robot memory chip and Chaos Emerald shard. All at once, his memories of his friendship with Sonic flooded his mind. Sonic smiled as he saw the tears run down the fox's face. It was at that exact moment that he knew Tails had remembered. "Oh, Sonic!" He shouted. "How could I? I can't believe what I did… I'm sorry! Don't be angry at me, please! …Er…no… Sonic, I don't even deserve your friendship anymore!"

"It's all right, Tails," Sonic said, winking.

Suddenly remembering something else, Tails gasped. "The chip! Sonic, it's been controlling my mind! You've got to get it out! In my arm… you have to get it out of me before I go back to… the way I was before!"

Upon looking at the gash on Tails' arm, Sonic understood. "I knew it wasn't your fault, Tails!" He said happily.

"Sonic… please, take it out for me!"

"Oh." Sonic said as he realized what Tails wanted him to do. Feeling somewhat awkward, Sonic ran a finger over the almost-healed cut. That was when he noticed the end of the Chaos Emerald shard and about half of the memory chip sticking out of it. They sure were small, he thought. They were hard to notice at first glance.

Sonic gently tightened his fingers around the Emerald shard first, and gave it a small tug. He looked back at Tails. He didn't wince, didn't groan. He seemed determined to get the shard and the chip out of his system, forever.

Sonic looked back at the wound and gently slid the shard out of Tails' arm. He could see the scab that had grown around it splitting as he did so. The cut began bleeding again, but Tails acted as if he didn't notice. "I'm fine," he said. "It's just a cut."

"Yeah, a deep one at that!" Sonic replied. "Okay, now for that chip…" Sonic grabbed as much of the memory chip as he could. It was much smaller than the Chaos Emerald shard. He tugged gently. Just that caused Tails' arm to bleed more. A small puddle was forming on the cement below Tails' arm. "You okay?"

Tails nodded. "Fine."

As he had done with the Emerald shard, Sonic slowly and gently pulled the chip out of Tails' wound. "We're done."

"I'm going to be normal again, Sonic," Tails said, smiling. "Thanks for saving me."

"Any time, Tails, any time!" Sonic stood up and helped Tails to his feet. They faced Amy, Knuckles, Cream, and the Chaotix.

"And thanks to you guys, too. I have an odd feeling you probably helped Sonic out."

"Ah, we're just glad you're okay!" Knuckles replied.

"Yeah, thank goodness!" Amy said. "We didn't think you would make it!"

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"C'mon, Tails." Sonic said, turning in the other direction. "Let's head back to the workshop. You need a good night's sleep. We'll worry about fixing you up in the morning, because you're still pretty beat up. But for now, we'll take a well-deserved rest. Sound good?"

Realizing how tired he really was for the first time (Tail hadn't gotten much sleep since the day he was captured), Tails nodded. "Sounds really good!"

"All right, let's go. I'll keep an eye on you through the night to make sure you're okay. See you guys later!" He waved to the others and started jogging back towards the Mystic Ruins.

"Sonic, wait up!" Tails called. He padded after his hero happily. It felt good to be himself again. And it felt even better to be Sonic the Hedgehog's friend again. Speeding up a little, he nearly caught up to Sonic and smiled at him. Seeing Tails out of the corner of his eye, Sonic turned his head slightly in his direction and returned the smile with a broad grin and a wink. Then they both faced forward again and stared at the beautiful sunset as they made their way back to the workshop, Tails following Sonic in his wake.

**Wow. Just, wow. Capture the Fox is done! Sequel time! Well, pretty soon anyway. Just on an odd note here, this chapter holds the record for the longest chapter so far, in this story or any other one I'm typing.**

**Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this story! Thank you for reviewing, those of you that did!**


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